First Year Done!!

 After a couple of semesters, my first year at FSU is finally over! While I am relieved to be done with my work for the semester (if you can call an English major's workload "work"), I have an odd sort of bittersweet feeling about it. Sure, I get to relax at home for about 4 months, and I'll hang with all my friends from home, but there is a sort of mourning I have for my freshman year experience at college. Oddly enough, I really fell in love with the Salley Hall dorm charm, despite what literally everyone else said about it. There's something very comfy and charming about the tight space, the walls crammed with decor, and the silly suitemate antics. After all, that was like a solid 20% of the fun I had this year- overhearing and eavesdropping on the lives of my suitemates. Well, really only one suitemate, Dev. The other one... Lin... remains a silent enigma. Who would've thought that the true "villain" of our suitemate experience wouldn't be the loud, obnoxious Dev, but rather the silently scheming Lin!

It feels weird to say, but I'm really going to miss them, in a weird little fucked up way. There was just something so funny about going home after a long day of work or a long night of partying, only to be met with some random dude screaming over the phone at his equally abusive long-distance girlfriend. I know Wade already sort-of wrote something about them, but I really think that Dev is going to be peak writing inspiration somewhere down the line. There's so much to be explored in him as a "character"... And almost equally as interesting is Lin. While not necessarily in a comedic way, I find it to be a pretty funny concept in general: the roommate that is universally hated, that no one talks to. I'd almost feel bad if it wasn't self-imposed. But yeah, even though I know Wade and I are getting two completely new roommates next semester in our apartment, I know it won't be the same. How could it? The yin and yang dynamic of our clashing suitemates is stuff you literally couldn't write. I'll never forget the night Lin snapped and started yelling at Dev, with Wade and I pretending to be asleep in our room so we wouldn't be dragged into the drama.. Those are the kinds of memories that you never forget, for better or worse. Dev and Lin have just given me so much to work with from a storytelling perspective that I really can't thank them enough.

But besides missing my dysfunctional suitemates, there's plenty of other things that I'll feel like a bittersweet longing for, like some of the friends I had up here. For some sad reason, I've just had a horrible track record with friends leaving after this semester... First Lyn is leaving (not to be confused with Lin) for Tennessee, then Sarah transferred to NYC, and finally Mo is probably transferring to Georgia Tech (even though he says he's having second thoughts, I know that's just raising my hopes for nothing). I'm honestly pretty impressed at the friends I made up here, since I was kind of expecting to just stick to Ren Wade and Martina. I have like four distinct friend groups now, each with different vibes and activities, and I'm pretty proud of myself for that. I'll be hard on myself everywhere else, but in terms of social success, I kind of crushed it this year. I really look forward to next semester's football games with Matt and the gang, the parties with Ren and Martina, and the spontaneous trips to nowhere in particular with Luis, Nik, and Jonathan. If I had to make a change, I'd say next semester I want to foster either a better relationship with the people in the film school (since they'll be so close to Wade and Ren) or make some more friends with my interest in English/writing. I need some more people to talk about writing with than just Novarini lol.

I'll also probably get a job next semester... That's something I'm oddly looking forward to. Sure, the whole selling myself to corporate labor rather than my creative/writing talents kind of sucks, but honestly, I haven't had a job in like two years, so it'll be good for me to get a better sense of work/life/school balance (although school will always come first of course). I think it's about time that I start earning my own keep... I feel bad/guilty for using my parents' money even though I know they want me to not worry about it. Not sure if its a pride thing o  if its just consciousness over money after Dad lost his job for a few months. Especially after all of the travelling I did this month, its probably added to a few extra hundred dollars to my usual spending habits, so I think my first project once I start getting paid is going to be paying off the "debt" I have from these trips. It's small, realistic, but also substantial enough to a point where I can feel a little more proud of myself for taking care of myself, even if it took a while for me to actually pay back my dad. I just hope he doesn't take it as an insult or anything...

I also just realized this is probably the only year I would be sharing classes with my friends who aren't English majors... I guess I got used to the idea of always seeing Martina or Jonathan in class since we had to do our science Gen Ed credits together, or sharing a math class with Wade and Ren, even though I didn't really attend that class all that much... I guess it'll force me into making some English major friends lol. I liked the people in my ENG2012 class this semester, but I think my professor's habit of making 70% of the class online kind of killed any chances of making meaningful relationships with other English kids... I hope I see some of them in more classes down the line, but it's not looking very hopeful for next semester, since I only have ONE CLASS A DAY. Ugh... I'm not looking forward to it.

Welp. I think that might actually be all that I'll miss... Maybe it doesn't seem like a lot, but I think its more of a representative of how happy I was at college for the one year I've been here for. Overall, it's been a fantastic year, filled with new friends, stories, and experiences that I'm sure I will remember pleasantly in the future. I can only hope that everyone else has had an experience like mine, because I truly feel blessed and lucky to have lived the life I have :).