When deciding to attend UCF as a New Yorker born and raised on Long Island, I received many different reactions. There was my family, who naturally, wanted me to stay closer to home so I could be reachable by car, not plane. Then there were my friends who raved over the fact that I’d be spending my time at the beach (which happens to be a little bit of a hike from Orlando), surrounded by palm trees and soaking up the sun with cute surfer boys. And as far as I go, I just wanted a brand new experience to learn, travel and see life from a new point of view. Little did I know how different my life would be in the same country, but about 1000 miles away down in Orlando at UCF.
YA’LLS YA’LLS AND MORE YA’LLS. I hear ya’lls from friends, professors, strangers and I bet if the crazy squirrels here could talk they’d be saying ya’ll as well. I actually found ya’ll very cute, but then I accidentally said it the other day and nearly had a heart attack. If I ever DARED to say ya’ll back at home, I would get the dirtiest New York look from everyone and probably never be able to show my face in public again.
THE DRIVING. Ahhhh it’s so much nicer driving here in Florida! Although you still get your unavoidable stupid drivers, I haven’t once gotten flipped off, followed, honked at, or cursed out here. And if you don’t signal, no one seems to care! I found this particularly astonishing knowing that if I didn’t signal back home in New York, I’d probably get followed home and be terrified to fall asleep that night. No joke.
Basically everyone has season passes to Disney/Universal. Like what? Oh my gosh, this made me so jealous! “So, like you can go to universal whenever you want?” And no one seems to make a big deal over it, but to me that is like a dream come true.
I learned the hard way that there really is one season. And one season always. That season is 90+ degrees and humid, very humid. Girls are starting to post Snapchats and Instagrams celebrating fall and promoting their pumpkin spiced everything, but I’m like wait it’s still 90 degrees outside? This isn’t fall, everything is still green people.
MY ACCENT. About 30 seconds into a conversation with a stranger, I’m almost always asked, “Are you from up north?” Yes, now please serve me my cawfee! And then there’s the inevitable pizza situation at Lazy Moon. When you ask for a regular or plain slice, they look at me like I’m speaking another language. Then I resort to ordering a “cheese slice”(?) and then they know what I’m talking about. When asked if I want a drink, I ask for a “wawter” cup and they make the connection that I’m a foreign northerner and that’s why I’m requesting such strange items.
All in all, the aforementioned scenarios are what make my time here so memorable. Do I feel like an outcast sometimes? Yes, but my fellow New Yorker roommate and I commiserate and talk about all the cawfee, pizza joints, and New York bagels as we please. Truth is, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else for my college experience. There’s nothing like waking up every day to palm trees, a pool that’s opened all year round, and Disney World right in my backyard. Not to mention rubbing it in everyone’s faces back at home when I’m poolside and they’re trapped in a snowstorm. UCF has given me the new adventures, experiences, and memories that I hoped to discover, and for that I will be forever grateful.
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