Final blog

  As I cheered at the Randolph basketball game earlier this evening, the stands started to fill with graduates from the past years, ready to begin their Christmas break.  One thing that I noticed was the oldest alumni graduated only two years ago. Watching them talk to current students at Randolph I wondered how much I would actually come back to school and for how long it would actually last.

      I question if I will feel nostalgic coming back to basketball games thinking about all the times I have cheered on the Raiders. I danced for 12 years at Allegro Academy of Arts. I quit because I wanted to focus on school and my cheerleading. Recently, I took a trip down memory lane to watch some of their competition dances.  As soon as I walked in, tears filled into my eyes. It still smelt like air fresheners, and dance shoes. Though they had a completely different system and the studio was redone, the memories that rushed into my head remained the same. I ponder if I will feel this when I come back to Randolph. I will be excited to see old friends but those memoires might just be a chapter in my life, something to look back on and smile. Leaving Randolph isn’t like quitting dance, it is something that everyone must do.

            As you grow older high school seems less relevant. The alums that were at the game that graduated two years ago were there to cheer on their younger siblings. It is a rare occasion that I see anyone from the class of 2011 or below attending the games or visiting teachers. I think that it is still exciting that many people still keep in contact and make the connection back to Randolph, but I find it interesting that it is not necessary to everyone to have to go back their old high school. I feel like the memories will still be there and that everyone will be able to reminisce.

    Eventually people move on. People will feel the same way leaving college, having to move on to the “real world” and finding a job. While browsing through facebook I saw that old high school students, now adults, still hung out when they both ended up in the same city. This gives me hope that though people will grow distant and the process will keep happening, if you are willing to try, your friends will not be gone forever. I am excited and nervous to see what the future will be like! 

Adjusting to College: the interview

Sitting in my cold room early Saturday afternoon, I tried to get in contact with the one person I could not imagine my life without, my sister. Elizabeth was a lifer at Randolph, but is now a sophomore at Belmont University in Nashville, TN. After her phone failed her many times, she had to result to calling me on her roommate’s phone. Finally, after many technology issues, such as only hearing my self echo, I was able to ask Elizabeth questions many high school seniors are curious about.

The biggest piece of advice I got out of our interview was that you can not be afraid to put your self out of your comfort zone. Many of her stories and answers revolved around friends. I remember Elizabeth telling me that at Randolph she was used to being invited to wherever her friends went. In her high school years she had a close group of friends and was used to not having to worry about what to do on the weekends. When she went to college she had to adjust to not having that luxury. Joining groups like sororities and clubs helped, but Elizabeth mentioned you have to go above and beyond just saying hi to people. You need to force your self to invite people to go out, and actively participate in actives.

She told me a specific story about how she became close friends with a boy named Brian. It all started in biology. They were in the same class and occasionally would ask each other if they got the notes, but nothing more than that. One day in a crowded, noisy lunchroom Elizabeth could not find a friend to sit with. She saw Brian sitting alone and decided to put her self out there. Elizabeth and her stomach full of butterflies walked over and asked if she could sit with him. Automatically he said yes and they hit it off, talking about how awful their biology class was. Soon after, his roommate joined them and they all became close friends.

As for high school friends, the same advice applies. I asked how much she communicates with her Randolph friends, this year and last year. Her response was pretty typical of those who are in college. Her and her close friends made a groupme ( a way to communicate via group message) this year. She said that they don’t communicate as much as they thought individually, but as a whole they still talk mostly every day. Elizabeth mentioned how her freshmen year everyone seemed to be surprised how little everyone seemed to talk to each other. With everyone’s different busy schedules it is hard to find time. But on a positive note she mentioned how great it is to reconnect with everyone during breaks. On the contrary some adjustments were hard. For example, many of her high school friends went to the University of Alabama, some even roomed together. Elizabeth said the first time she saw pictures on facebook she felt left out, but later realized she is making tons of new great relationships.

“College is what you make it” These words stuck out to me. You can choose to mope around, missing your mom, your friends, a home environment,  or you can go out and enjoy the freedom you might not have had in high school. Elizabeth enjoys not having to tell an adult every move she is going to make. She loves the new relationships she has made, and though she might miss home cooked meals she said she wouldn’t change a thing.