Hi, all. I wasn't going to do one of these for Spring Semester, but Kacie told me she enjoyed the first one and that I should do it again. I don't make the rules. So here I am with the unsolicited silver linings, lessons, and musings from another semester in West Lafayette.
Back in March, a friend and I were talking and got around to the topic of our high school experiences. At one point, he said "I bet you peaked in high school." I couldn't even take this as an insult; it was the funniest but farthest-from-the-truth thing I've ever heard said about myself. Because yes I loved high school, but can you imagine if APUSH DBQs, overcrowded cafeteria lunches, and 200s track sprints were the pinnacle of my existence? Me neither. I know I'm preaching to the choir, but college is such an upgrade, you guys. I have loved every overworked, under-slept moment; every walk to class in the pouring rain (even better when it was cold, too); every mediocre dining court meal; every Sunday that sagged under the weight of work put off all weekend; every suppressed laugh from texts in the group chat opened during lecture. That being said, the best is yet to come.
Just because a guy learns your favorite song on the guitar does NOT mean he likes you. Apparently.
People should write poems about that perfect, beautiful moment you feel the caffeine kick in.
There is nothing quite like rooting for two people to get together and seeing them finally make it official. My boys. My amazing hot sexy roommate, Kacie and her beau, Beau. My dear Seattle correspondent, Viet, and his sweet girlfriend Kaia. I am so lucky that I get to witness and feel and root for your guys' love. I hope you realize how lucky you are, too.
I hate Sundays. For obvious reasons. However, I would like to thank Sam Levinson and his weekly Euphoria episodes for making Sundays, for the first time in my life, a day to look forward to.
Kacie said if music were a love language, that's what mine would be. I had never thought about it, but she couldn't have hit the nail on the head any better. I have loved getting to know people through the songs they know all the words to, the songs they immediately skip, the recs they send, the playlists they have pinned, and of course the streaming platform they use. Shakespeare was on to something when he said "If music be the food of love, play on."
I said something about this last semester and I'll say it again: The easiest gift we can give to people is our kindness. I was standing in line at the salad bar and the guy behind me complimented my tattoo. A girl came up to me at the gym, introduced herself, and asked me my split because she says she sees me all the time. Oh my god?? I almost ran after her and proposed. I was walking into Hilly brunch and the woman who scans people in said "You have a beautiful smile." Didn't need coffee that morning. A guy from my orientation group, whom I hadn't spoken to since that first week before classes, came up to me back in January to tell me he'd read my blog post from first semester and to "keep writing" - Sean, I don't know if you're reading this one, but I want to thank you again. You have no idea. Bottom line is, guys, you leave an indelible you-shaped mark wherever you go, and the world is better for it. Our days are a composite of the big and small moments, but the small ones are my favorite, and I never get the chance to express to you all just how much they mean to me. Strangers go about their day not realizing they give others something golden to hold on to for the rest of the week. Friends go on without realizing they are the lights of someone's (my) life. So here is a brief thank you that does absolutely none of you justice.
Power nap locations, final tally: Krach, Starbucks, WALC, PMU basement, Union Hotel, Griffin study room, CHAS, ABE building (recommendations more than welcome)
Save yourself the trouble and stay AWAY from blondes. Most out-of-character phase of my semester. Cami, not a word.
One thing about me that will never change is that I will never turn in a paper before 11:50pm on the night it is due.
Erin told me that she and Sophia were trying to put all their non-Greek life friends in sororities and neither of them could think of which one I would be in. This is the highest compliment I think anyone has ever given me.
I told myself all first semester I "didn't have time for reading." So second semester, I made it my mission to read at least a few pages every day. This mission was not success, but on the whole, it got me reading on a near-daily basis. Because of course there's time. When eating lunch alone between classes. When in need of a brief study break between subjects. When settling in to bed before turning out the light. We make time for the things that make us feel most ourselves, and although college saps us of both time and energy, it also helps us get better at this balancing act of academics and the happiness (and sanity) we owe ourselves.
Stumbled upon much beauty in the mundane this semester. In the couple sharing an umbrella on a rainy day. In the gardeners and landscapers scattered across campus that made it so very pretty and fragrant those last couple weeks. In the soft breathing of your roommates fast asleep as you get ready to head to the gym in the morning. In a sip offered of someone's drink and an overeager dog walking its owner. In coffee-stained notebook pages. In the crowded lawns of frisbee throwers, spikeball players, and picnicers on the first warm day of the year. In the sunrise that casts its golden glow across the room if you wake up early enough--letting you know that today will be a good day--somehow making Owen 250 feel far more enchanted than a college dorm room.
Everyone needs a Miles in their life. He will moon you and willingly eat Jello for dessert (in front of you so you are forced to watch) and play a Lil Durk x Morgan Wallen collab while on aux....but he will also notice when you're not having a good day and study with you even when he doesn't have any work and buy you matcha Kit-Kats and strawberry bingsoo.
As the weather starts to warm up again, I am reminded how nice it is that you have to walk everywhere on a college campus. To get to class, to run errands, to grab coffee, to visit a friend, to digest after a meal is SO NICE. A luxury I will sorely miss being back home. Of course, not having to worry about paying for gas is another bonus. And the reduced carbon footprint. And always getting 10,000 steps for the day. I will miss power walking to the first half of Pyramids every day.
Throughout all of high school (and fall semester), I struggled with FOMO. I could not bring myself to decline plans and risk possibly missing the best night ever of my entire life. A couple weeks in to second semester, though, I realized that a night in is never a night regretted. A night spent getting ready, pregaming, staying out much too late for my liking, on the other hand, wasn't always all it's cracked up to be. I think I felt I had something to prove. Perhaps to the high school version of myself that earned its reputation for being over-achieving and straight-arrowed. Well this is the college version of me who is so wise after being through the wringer for...a singular year. And she knows, now, that a night in is simultaneously the least and the most you can do for yourself. After a stressful week, movie night with friends, an evening cozied up with a book, cards with wine and Mac Demarco for company--life is almost always sweetest in its simplest moments.
My new coffee order that I am very happy about (for those wondering): iced coffee with oat milk and 3-4 pumps of caramel. What's so great about it is that it costs $4.01 which I have gaslit myself into thinking is very reasonable. Plus it tastes divine.
All my gratitude (and then some) to second semester for bringing me closer to the people who make the Mondays feel like Fridays, whose company makes the freezing January treks across campus feel a bit warmer. To my roommates, who never tire of me no matter how tiresome I can be. Three different time zones have nothing on us. To my group of six, who fill me up in ways I didn't know were possible. To Sophia, who is so similar to me it's scary. To Odin, who lightens the burden of homework with conversation that has evolved from gym splits and small talk to family and politics (I'm not sorry) and whatever crosses our minds. To Tyler, who keeps me young and hip with his hockey lingo and who needs to work on his cornhole game so I don't beat him (again) on July 3rd. To you all, a girl who is rarely at a loss for words cannot find ones adequate to express her love and gratitude and admiration. You make me so lucky.
My sleep schedule was so bad at one point that I started making it my goal to be in bed and off my phone before the Wordle updated....I was rarely successful.
Another finals week, another week of peer reviewing friends' papers. Mom says I should start charging you all, but like I said last semester, I get a kick out of sifting through the janky grammar and amusing thesaurus work. Please never stop asking.
Friday, May 6th was a very hard goodbye. After spending two semesters building a life for myself in West Lafayette, I found myself struggling to want to leave. We did it. The whole rigamarole. Sneaking Google Maps to find classes that first week (and turning brightness allllll the way down), signing up for a dozen clubs and sticking with almost none of them, meeting new people and deciding which ones you want in your corner, figuring out which dining court has the best desserts, scrambling to find weekend plans, gauging the Starbucks line vs. making it to class on time (nine times out of ten, class can wait), finding the best one-stall restrooms on campus (if you're a shy pooper like me), scoping out your gym crush, studying until your eyes go crossed, screaming Mr. Brightside in moments of unadulterated joy and whiteness, religiously stalking Find My Friends, blatantly jay-walking in front of oncoming campus buses, scrambling to get the BeReal in time, surviving the second round of finals week, cleaning out your side of the dorm, saying goodbye to strangers turned friends turned family, leaving your home sweet home of the past eight months.
Purdue, thanks for everything. In reflecting on my time here, I hope I've reminded whomever has been kind and patient enough to read this of their own. I hope you found your people and your favorite night spots and your drive to pursue whatever you came to college for (or didn't go to college for). I hope you've enjoyed as many warm afternoons studying outside, vegan chicken nuggets at Windsor, closed tabs and submission confirmation emails, Target's Monster Trail Mix to get through lecture, and surprise cancelled classes as I have--or whatever it is that brings you joy. More than the over-snoozed alarms, z-scores and monotonous Tocqueville readings, comically bad campus wifi, and worm-covered sidewalks to which we owe the April showers, May did, in fact, bring the flowers we were promised. Cheers to you all for finishing out another semester, wherever that may be. Cheers to your successes and joys as much as your failures and seen-better days. To you and all that you've learned about yourself these past 16 weeks. I hope you look ahead and feel excited about what's to come. Wishing a wonderful summer to you. MUCH LOVE and, as always, BOILER UP.
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