IU, here I come!
August 29, 2009
It's been a little while since I posted. I was going to post about my amazing experiences at GenCon (the major geek convention held in Indianapolis every year) the weekend of the 16th, but I never got around to finishing the post. I'll leave it at this: The people at GenCon are some of the nicest, coolest people I've ever met in my life. Everyone there is just so happy to be there. It's like everyone is completely equal. It's really surprising but very, very cool. I can't wait to go back next year.
The reason I didn't post my original GenCon spiel, though, is because immediately after that, I started packing for college. Three days ago, I loaded a ton of my stuff in the car and drove down to Bloomington, where I'm taking up residence for the next four years of my life (possibly more if I stay here for grad school). This has definitely been a different experience, but it's pretty wonderful.
The first day and a half that I was here, I was feeling lonely and anxious to make a set of friends to go around and do things with. I felt really out of place, like everyone else already knew each other and I was an outsider.
That was completely ridiculous. Less than fifteen minutes after I first complained to my parents, some of the girls on my floor invited me to a floor dinner. Our dorm's eatery closed early, so we went over to another dorm to grab some food. Afterward, we went with one of their friends to yet another dorm to help him paint the sign for one of his dorm activities.
Later that evening, a large group of us went to see I Love You, Man at the Indiana Memorial Union theater. I didn't really know any of them that well, but they still included me and I didn't really feel weird about it at all. Maybe I should have. I think not, though. I'm beginning to realize how amazing the process of going to college is. You are completely starting fresh. No one here (except for the people I went to school with) knows anything about who I was in high school. My accomplishments that meant so much three months ago are now nothing, but I'm okay with that. I'm excited at the prospect of gaining new challenges and new success and even new failures as long as I learn from them.
I love meeting new people, and this is definitely the place to do it. Last night I hung out with yet another random group of people I don't know playing games like Catchphrase. Turns out I actually did know one of them from five years ago. His sister was my cousin's best friend, and my cousin and I had gone over to his house to play cards one night when I was in eighth grade. He taught me to play Mao, which has been one of my favorite games ever since. It's a very small world. :) (Which is a little crazy, considering there are about 40, 000 people on this campus.)
After all the festivities and welcome week activities, though, I'm ready to start classes. I have nothing planned for today, which is weird for me. Saturdays used to be the only days I ever had anything planned. I think I'm going to meander campus and map out my classes. Or I might just chill around the dorm. Who knows? I certainly don't.
Wish me luck!
Love, Sarah
