Friday, March 12, 2010

Flashback Friday: Freshman Year of College

Happy Friday everyone! I often don't have a chance to post on Fridays, but I really want to start getting better about it. I can never think of anything to write because I'm so exhausted and all I can think is, "thank god it's Friday!!!!" Amber started today doing "Flashback Friday" which I've seen on a lot of blogs, and she is flashing back to each of her 4 years of college. Hers makes a bit more sense since it's 4 weeks til she's done with college, but I am closing in on 4 years SINCE college, so I figure, why not? It's fun to reflect on things and hopefully you guys will enjoy it too. I may do more than 4 posts to cover all 4 years.

Let's start with freshman year. I decided to go to Boston College, which is only about a 30 minute drive from my parent's house. I wasn't particularly against going far away, I just really liked BC and it happened to be close. I think I had some insecurity about staying so close to home at homes. I felt like I "should" be moving far away and be more independent so I tried to restrict myself in how often I went home, etc. In hindsight it was pretty ridiculous and I hope none of my college readers do that to themselves. Be where you want to be, when you want to be there, don't let other people's ideas of what college should be limit you.

Freshman year, to be honest, was very hard. It was fun to live on my own and have my own rules, but I was used to a lot of privacy at home and I had basically none at college. I found some friends, but BC is a culture of off-campus parties and bars that are very strict about IDs, so finding things to do was a challenge. My cousin had an off campus apartment and she was so nice about telling me when they were having parties but for some reason it was difficult to organize everyone.

I will say though, my friends and I did take advantage of Boston. We did a lot of Newbury Street and Copley shopping. We went out to dinner and ice cream in the city. We were not afraid of the T. At the time I thought that it was the "wrong" thing to be doing (I should've been out partying more!), but when I think back to that year my best memories were with my best friends enjoying Boston.

I also seemed to make up for my lack of serious partying at my own school whenever I visited my high school friend's at their colleges or when they came to visit me. Oops :)

Some of the best things that happened freshman year included meeting a few friends that I am still good friends with now. I got along amazingly well with my roommate, which does NOT happen to everyone! Our room was a total comfort zone for me in a school that definitely was not. I always felt like I could tell Ash what I was thinking and she would just be like "YOU TOO?! I was totally thinking that!" Also freshman year I met Katie (you may remember I was her MOH in her wedding last summer), we got along well from the beginning too, although our really close friendship we still have today develops a bit later in the story...

Both Katie and Ash are in my wedding this summer.
Other great memories from freshman year include:

Going to hockey games...

Decorating our door for every holiday...


and dressing up for an 80s party with Gerry (also still a good friend of mine)...

It's funny really how one of the tougher years of my life still has so many memories attached. If only I hadn't been so worried about what I "should" have been doing, I probably would've been a lot happier with what I was doing.

How was your freshman year of college? What are your favorite memories from that time? What was the hardest part?


16 comments:

  1. ahh Freshman year. I loved it but I'd never want to re-live it. I lived in the dorms with tons of girls and we always left our doors open and we stayed up late and danced and went to parties and drank and just had a fun fun time. I wouldn't be able to keep up now with the Lisa from my freshman year!

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  2. freshman year of college was filled with booze, sleepless nights , bad grades and LOTS OF FUN! gosh I loved loved loved my freshman year. greatest time ever.

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  3. Aww, fun idea! Great pics... I have to say, you pretty much look the same. :)

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  4. Oh, fun times! Freshman year was the best! Loving all the pictures. I think I will did all my old college pictures out one of these days :)
    HAve a wonderful weekend.

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  5. I actually had a very hard time freshman year. I was pretty shy when I met new people and had a hard time making friends. Eventually, I did, but it took a long time.

    You and I have very similar hair!

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  6. I loved my freshman year of college. It was the time that I met most of my friends throughout my college career!

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  7. It sounds like you had a great freshman experience -- and that's wonderful that you got along with your roomie so well! Unfortunately, my freshman year of college was a trainwreck! I had major roommate/homesickness issues. Meh! Thank goodness this year is better :)

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  8. Awww fun! Thanks for jumping on the flashing back to college bandwagon! Now, YOU are the one that looks young ;-)

    I love how you guys decorated your dorm room doors! So cute. Some of my very BEST times over the last four years have been quiet dinners and drinks with good friends, road trips and movie nights. Even though I did party-party my first two years of college the crazy drunken nights aren't what stand out in my mind, the amazing times with good girlfriends are!

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  9. I have great memories of freshman year. I love the freedom of being away from home, but i was only 2 hours away so it was also nice to have the option of going home if I wanted to. I lived in the dorms & joined a sorority in the spring. My roommate and I were like oil and water but that was my only bad roommate situation from college so I can't complain!

    Great photos! I have tons of photos but none of them are scanned in! I really need to buy a printer/scanner so i can scan in some photos.

    It's weird to think I will have been out of school for 7 years this May!!!!!

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  10. I loved BC! I can't believe my 10 year reunion is this spring!!

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  11. I talked about this on Amber's blog but freshman year was horrible for me. I was only about 45 minutes from home but I missed it terribly. I had a horrible relationship with my roommate and never really met anyone I connected with. Most of the friends I met in classes were older than me (since I was done with a lot of my general studies and working on the latter part of my degree) and had their own lives. Plus, I go to a big commuter college, although they've tried to make it less so but it still remains. Needless to say, I moved back home after my freshman year and have been very happy with my choice!

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  12. So cute!!!!!!!!! I loved seeing all those pics :D

    Freshman year was hard for me because I went straight from high school to law school. Not an easy switch. My grades went way down and I spent the rest of law school trying to make up for that year!!!

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  13. I think you're right in that people need to do what's right for them, not what they should be doing. My finacee and I are not the partying type and we just like to hang out together and get our work done. A lot of people think we're nuts for getting married so young and think that we missed out at college because we were together. I disagree and I know that like you, I will look back at theses years fondly because I was doing what made me happy.

    As far as my freshman year goes, it was ok. I was glad to be in the same place as my now fiancee after being apart for a year. My roommate situation was ok 1st semester and awful 2nd semester. Things have improved since then, thank goodness!

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  14. Oh I love flashbacks! Your pictures are so great, and I love all the "dress-up" occasions. We had many of those at Miami (where I went, in Ohio). My freshman year was actually not the best. I was stuck in a dorm with two new roomates that I had nothing in common with (at the time) and an all girls dorm! It was the only all girls dorm on campus. Why did they put ME in it?? I was from an all girls SCHOOL!! I was ready for MEN! Ugh. I was super annoyed. It took a while for me to get settled into college. By sophomore year I was loving it!

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  15. My Freshman year was easily my best year of college. I went about 2 hours away from home and had a blast. I loved living in the dorms, having my first taste of independence...it was great! Reading this post made me remember all the good times! I love this idea and can't wait to read more!

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