My freshman year of college was a somewhat of a reality check.But in a good way.
I had grown up with these on-screen depictions of college as being very similar to high school. All the cliques, mandatory fashion choices, and of course the drama associated with those. I didn't really expect college to be much different, especially being I was going to a college the size of a mid-to-large high school (at least when compared to my graduating class of 53).
But what I found was very different.
Even though I found the whole college itself to have a diverse range of backgrounds and the subsequent different lifestyles, I could not have asked for a better wing.
(Disclaimer: I feel the need to quickly explain my focal point. I grew up in the northern mid-west on a farm 25 miles from the nearest thing what most people would call a city. I was surrounded by little, mid-west farm towns. What most people would consider northern hick-towns if they met the high school students... We were all the same. There was no diversity in any sense of the word. So my experience was probably a tad more extreme than most peoples.)
Anyway, I was placed on a wing that was made up of girls who had previously lived in a much smaller dorm that was turned into a guys dorm. In that dorm they had established an incredible culture of acceptance. So much so that I didn't even believe it at first. My thoughts were, "Sure, they accept everybody's quirks. Probably about as much as Hollywood does."
So I was skeptic. For awhile... I mean, there's no way you can actually get an entire wing of girls to be cool with everyone being, well, cool.
But I was dead wrong.
I soon saw some of the quirks :) But never heard the talk behind peoples backs, some (actually most) even joined right in.
It was such a relief to realize that these girls were genuine. And its so awesome to see the real person behind the facade so many put up and to feel entirely free to be your weird self.
Because we're all weird, some of us just allow ourselves to have more fun in life than others do. :)
Thank you girls of 3rd East, for being your awesome, amazingly cool selves :)
