At the end of last August, I was lying on my couch, struck with a severe desperation typical of a rising freshman attending a school on the quarter system. My social media feeds had already begun to overflow with photos and videos of my high school friends from their first weeks at college. All I wanted to do was leave my house immediately, without waiting another month to embark on the new college experiences that were popping up on snapchat stories every day.
However, one of the reasons my delayed start bothered me most was because my friends’ absence just continued to remind me that come May, they would all be back home starting off summer together and I would be isolated again, a good thousand miles from my hometown. In my mind, it would actually be worse, because I wouldn’t have my mom to hang out with everyday (yeah, she was my only friend in September—and that’s pretty lucky because she’s ten times cooler than I am). To say I wasn’t thrilled with the prospects of my academic calendar would be a major understatement.
Well, it’s May now, and yes, my friends from high school are all together (and not shy about reminding me of that fact)—but I couldn’t have been more wrong about how it’s making me feel. Seriously, you couldn’t drag me away from here if you tried.
You may hear students complain about the fact that we’re here for another four weeks, but what’s so bad about that? I get to spend four more weeks of great weather at an amazing school. We’re on a beach just outside Chicago until the beginning of June with no parents or summer jobs to worry about yet—what’s the problem? I don’t mind spending one more month sitting in the library before I spend two waiting tables.
Even more so, this extended time period at school means I’ve got 30 more days left in my first year of college. That’s 30 more days of crazy opportunities and adventures you can only get away with as an underclassman; 30 more days of living in Bobb—which, despite its unclean and malodorous reputation, has become more of a comforting home to me than my sanitary suburban house back in Massachusetts; and 30 more days with the most amazing friends who were absolute strangers to me just months ago.
So I’ll miss out on a few hangouts at home and some quality time with my mama, but I’m not ready for my freshman year to end yet. So thank you, quarter system. I may have hated your guts nine months ago, but right now—yes I acknowledge I’m being cliché and quoting our Wildcat Welcome song—there’s no place I’d rather be.