Students’ Views

For Thanksgiving break I came home to Kerrville, Texas to spend time with family and high school friends. It has been an odd experience for me because since I started Southwestern last year, I really haven’t left. I worked on campus all summer and most of my friends from home now live in the Austin area, so I didn’t have many reasons to make it back to the Hill Country.

Coming home did inspire this entry because in doing so I’ve realized how many great friendships I’ve made while at Southwestern. I’ve been asked before (and I worried myself) about how to make friends at college. I wanted so badly to make sure that I made a great first impression that I wore a cute outfit on move-in day (bad idea, it’s always so hot in August) and that I was friendly to everyone new I met. Now, a year later, I can’t believe how much I worried about if I was going to make friends in college or not because I can’t imagine being without the friends I have at Southwestern. Maybe it’s because you’re in a living situation that friendships seem to be so much stronger than they were in high school. I honestly feel incredibly close to so many people it’s unbelievable to think that I’ve only known them for little over a year now. At Southwestern, as cliché as it may seem, you really are able to be yourself, and by doing this, you’ll meet so many interesting people either like you or completely different. I’ve found that in my friendships made in college I’m able to talk about everything; from discussing Nietzsche, to the latest celebrity gossip, to religion, as well as our family and social backgrounds.

A lot of my time is spent hanging out with the friends I’ve made on my residence hall and the girls I live with. For example, during the week of Halloween we have a tradition, started two years ago by my group of friends, to have a movie fest. This year, since it was during Halloween week, it was called “Green Hall-Oween-O-Rama�. We live on ‘Green Hall’, and naturally, any movie festival should be called an ‘O-Rama.’ We watched a different horror movie every night for a week and the boys next to us decorated their entire room for the event. Flyers were made and people from every floor of the dorm and even from the other side of campus came over to watch a movie with us every night for a week at seven o’clock. It was great bonding time for our hall, and this is just one of many examples of different random activities that can develop while living in a dorm. Another thing I’ve been doing a lot lately is going to dinner parties, which makes me sound really old. My roommate’s boyfriend is an amazing cook, and he and his roommate live in an on campus apartment so they have people over almost every week for dinner. They make us great food (which is a nice escape from The Commons), we listen to jazz, and sit on the floor and enjoy each other’s company. These weekly dinner parties not only give me a chance to eat well, but I’ve learned a few cooking techniques and I’ve gotten to see my friends in a different social setting than a class room or a fraternity party. Since I’ve been in college, I’ve gone on camping trips, gone to museums, charity events, art exhibits, movies, and visits to different cities all with friends I’ve made at school.

Now, that I am home for a few days, I find myself being texted and IMed by different Southwestern friends planning events to do upon our return to school. The hardest part wasn’t making friends, it is going back home and being without them. I used to think I’d miss high school and home, but now Southwestern is my home and it’s an incredibly comfortable place that I hate leaving.