Graduating high school, I was the epitome of a small town writer cliché. I had dreams of moving to New York City for university and building a whole new life. Safe to say, things didn’t work out that way. Instead, I came to East Lansing to attend Michigan State University and study journalism. It was the best decision I could have made, though it didn’t seem like it at first.
My freshman year was, for lack of a better word, boring. I only left my dorm room for classes and to get food from the dining hall, too introverted to make any new friends. I felt as if I was failing, that I wasn’t getting the college experience I was promised.
Everything changed sophomore year. For the first time in my life, new friendships came easily and naturally to me. I recognized someone that I knew, a friend of a friend, on the floor of my new dorm. In that moment, I was brave enough to ask to go to an event with them, and that action spurred a butterfly effect of unimaginable proportions. They introduced me to one of their friends, a girl that I bonded with so quickly I thought I might get whiplash. To this day, she is one of the most important people in my life.
From that point on, I made many new friends and had many new experiences. Some people came and went, some stayed. I experienced loss and heartbreak, and I discovered that my glasses leave marks on my cheeks when I laugh a lot.
Now, being with my friends is as natural, easy, and necessary as breathing — a stark contrast to the anxious, conversation-avoider that I was at 18. At 20, I couldn’t imagine my life without our inside jokes and shared memories.
With people to support me, I explored more of the university and became more confident to put myself out there. Before I knew it, I was referring to MSU as “home.” The hallway study lounges in the dorms, the third floor of the library, the grassy banks of the Red Cedar River — it all became innately familiar to me. I knew the way the air smelled and the sound my shoes made walking onto the bus.
While I found a home in my friends and in the campus, I also found my place in journalism. I joined Her Campus at MSU and started working for The State News. I couldn’t believe the amount of people around me who felt the same way about journalism that I did. Immediately I felt that I was understood, that I was surrounded by people who knew how I think.
As much as being with like minded individuals comforted me, they challenged me even more. Professors expanded my knowledge in an abundance of ways, and I had more fascinating and view-changing conversations with peers than I could count.
I made friends from all over the world. I did research projects on topics I’d never explored. I spoke with someone about the Jurassic Park universe in depth at a bus stop. This discovery — that learning and growth occurs in the little, unexpected moments even more so than it occurs in a lecture hall — changed the way that I think about life.
I thought that I knew who I was when I came to university. Three years later, I am not sure if I would even recognize her, or the life she was living. I grew more as an individual during my time at MSU than I anticipated. Now, maybe I know who I am. Or maybe not.
What I do know is this: I am good at what I do, but that doesn’t mean I have to be perfect; how people treat me is more important than what they mean to me; some things come quickly and some things take time, but they’re equally worth it; and all the good things that come my way, I’m worthy of them.
Thank you, MSU. I owe you a lot.