17 days until Christmas, but I’m more concerned with my first semester of college being done. 15 weeks ago I was a scared college freshman, struggling even in talking freely with my roommate.

All I’d been doing over the summer was having lunch with old friends and working. (It’s funny how popular you become once you’re about to leave for good.)

I came to New Student Week not ready to take my “first flight” but to make fun of all the getting-to-know you games I’d inevitably play. Did any freshmen really need those games to make friends?

Doubt it. I think they’re played purely for the entertainment of the OL’s.

First Flight didn’t teach me anything, but living in a dorm certainly has. You don’t realize how adaptable you are until you’ve slept in between a couch and an ottoman, stayed up ‘til five a.m. talking to friends when you normally go to bed at 11 and going without meals just because you want to save your swipes.

As the semester is nearing a close, I’ve been feeling a little more confident than I was as a newly-graduated high school senior. College doesn’t meet all the stereotypical expectations that everyone talks about, but it meets needs in ways that make it more worthwhile.