So This is Adulting... I Guess

So do you remember when we were little kids and dreamed about being an adult? Well I guess this is what it looks, although I'm not entirely sure that I'm fully an adult because quite frankly, I still feel like I'm 17. Anyways, I have been back in College Station for about a month and a half now and I am loving life. I started my sophomore year at Texas A&M, started my new job, and I am finally diving into life at TAMU the way that it was meant to be. Here is how it is going so far!

My freshman year at A&M was spent pretty much tucked away in my dorm. My classes were 100% online and so I pretty much only left my dorm to go to church or work, to see my friends, or to exercise. This year, my classes are fully in person so if I am being honest, I feel like a freshman all over again because this whole in-person thing is new to me. I feel like I have adjusted well though. I have a bike so I ride it on campus to make the travel on campus easier and quicker for myself. This semester I am getting to take mostly education based classes and I am falling more and more in love with my major each and every day. And right next door to the education building where most of my classes are is a library that has a Starbucks in it and that is where I love to go to do most of my studying, because who doesn't love some coffee to go with their homework?

When I am in the coffee shop on campus, I like to use the free time to call my friends and family and one day a few weeks ago, I was on the phone with my mom and found out that I was 2 hours short of being a junior by hours which means that if I had taken just 1 more class this past summer, I would be a junior right now and not a sophomore which was just a little bit frustrating. The more we delved into the hour classifications for each class title, we figured out that I will have completed 90 hours by the end of Spring of '22. And OMG, was I speechless when it dawned on me that that is NEXT semester. Not a year from now, but in just a short 8 months. Now to non-Aggies, that may not seem like a big deal but for this Aggie, this means that I will get to order my Aggie ring a semester earlier than I thought and hopefully get it around my 21st birthday. As you can suspect, I am ecstatic to have that Aggie gold on my finger!

Some of my favorite Aggie activities that I have finally gotten to experience this semester are Midnight Yell, football games, and joining an organization. I was able to attend one football game my freshman year but I did not regularly attend like I wish I could have. I went to my first Midnight Yell with my roommates a few weeks ago and it was an absolute blast. I feel like I learned a lot of the yells that I did not know that night and although I am still not a pro at them, I can tell that I've picked up a lot since attending the games. I've attended both home football games that we have had this season and I can proudly say that we have BTHO both teams. Now, if you know me, then you know that I love watching football and can be really enthusiastic about my team winning, but one of my absolute favorite parts about an Aggie football game is watching the band perform. Coming from a town where military style marching was popular, I love being able to say that I attend a school where they take pride in their marching skills and have precision in every step. I also recently joined a organization on campus called Student Council for Exceptional Children which is a student council focused on learning how to properly include and teach special needs students. Even though I am not a SPED major, I will have special needs students in my classroom and so I want to do everything I can now to learn how to best teach them.

A few days ago I turned 20 and like I've already said, I still feel like I am still 17. It blows my mind that I blinked and I'm already on my second year of college. I remember thinking that by the time I turned 20, that I would understand how life works, but I'm still learning a lot and I'm starting to realize that I’m never going to stop learning because there is always something out there for us to learn. Since moving to college a year ago, I feel like I have learned a lot about myself and have really leaned into my independence. I’m still learning how to balance my health, school, and social lives, and even though I still have insecurities, I can look back and see how much confidence I have gained. So here’s to a new decade of fun and learning!