I was in the Super Target just south of Boulder the other day grabbing some milk and checking out the clearance jewelry. I rarely go to this Target since there is one just down the street from me but with the college students just moving back into town, I’ve been avoiding the local Target lik the plague. I made the mistake of going in there once last week and I immediately turned around at the sight of the hoards and hoards of freshmen clutching bright pink body pillows.
Despite my deer in headlights facade when dealing with the arrival of all the college students back into Boulder, being in Super Target surrounded by a few fresh-fraced college students and passing by the campus seeing the students moving into the dorms, made me get a little nostalgic for my days of college. Not the FIT days of college–I will never get nostalgic about that place, but about Michigan State.
I used to love going back to school shopping with my mom. It meant I got to pick out new items for my dorm room, new school supplies (yes I’m the dork that always got excited about new pens and notebooks) and best of all, new fall clothes.
Then there was move in day. The first day at a new college (which I repeated, oh, three times) was always a little nerve-wracking but always exciting. You’d leave your doors open so that people could come stop by and say hello, and they would. You’d meet your new roommate and in my case, discover that she was horrible. The best was moving back in after the holidays or second year (if you indeed HAD a second year at the same college. My only return years in the dorms were once at MSU and once at FIT) and running into your friends in the hallways and the epic catch up sessions you would have before classes started.
I miss that. I miss college. I’ve never been nostalgic for it before but suddenly I find myself in a college town and I’m remembering. It’s a dangerous thing, this remembering business. I miss the drunken nights in the dorms with all our friends that lived on that same floor. The walks we took in the freezing cold, wearing our scarves on our heads to entertain ourselves. When spring came and it suddenly was gorgeous outside. (MSU’s campus is for the most part, wasted on it’s students. It’s beautiful in the summer but winter? Yeah, not so much.) The beach volleyball games, the football, hockey and basketball seasons. Those were some really fun times.
And then I remember the 8am math class that I had all the way across campus in the dead of Michigan winter. The all nighters I pulled at the end of every project that resulted in me falling asleep on the keyboard. The times I cried in a bathroom over AutoCAD. Then I’m not so nostalgic anymore. Then I’m not really missing college anymore. I’m thankful that I can leave my work at work and not have hours and hours of homework and projects to finish.
Although I will never forget the day that Steph and I were studying for a Human Sexuality course and in order to help us study, drew the female and male anatomy with detailed descriptions up on the white board in the study lounge of our dorm. What can I say, we were young. Not that much has changed…
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I get this way sometimes too, I think it’s a Michigan State thing! Especially since I live in basically the same climate, right around now I start thinking of walking to class with the leaves crunching, and heading to parties across campus, stopping at the grates behind the library to warm up. And you’re right, the campus is completely wasted on students, we had our engagement pictures taken there in July, and it was even better than I remember it being in the spring and fall. Ah, memories.
Yes, the library grates! Glad I’m not the only one.
I miss MSU an insane amount. Last year one of those football shows was in East Lansing for the day and when they showed footage from around campus, I cried. I’m sure I’ll do it again this fall. I never thought I would get so homesick!
My little sister is in her second year at UF, which also happens to be my alma mater. Watching her enjoy her own college experience only sends me back to memories of my own…I’m right there with you. Real Life seems a whole lot more Real (and a whole lot more fun) when you’re looking back on what we used to stress about.