So, after a much needed break from LEAP (Saint Leo’s Summer Program) I was excited to return to Saint Leo and start school. I was going to have a new roommate.

Her name was Nicole, and I had met her via Facebook. Even though we had spoken online, on the phone, and met one time during the summer; I was still very nervous to actually live with someone for more than just a month. When we finally arrived, and it was time to move in and we hit it off right away. My roommate was the coolest person ever! We have so much in common (which is rare) and we understood that we both came from different areas and wouldn’t always like each other, but we’d get through it. I am from northern Virginia, and she was from Tampa. After unpacking and putting together our residence hall room, our families decided to take a break and have lunch. We all had so much in common and had a great time. I was no longer afraid to start a new chapter of my life.

The first few weeks of school proved to be a bit overwhelming with all things that there were to do. I was excited to learn that my room would become the “show� room for prospective students. Students who are interested in attending Saint Leo come by and get to see what a residence hall room looks like. This seems like hard work, but its not. For my roommate and I, it was easy. See, we are just a little obsessed with having a spotless room. I had also tried out and made the cheerleading squad. I was so nervous, I have been cheering for over about 15 years, and my biggest goal was to be on my school’s team in college. It was a lot of work, but it will be worth it. So far so good….

Wow, this month went by SO quick! A lot has happened. My classes went into crunch mode, and midterms came out of no where. College is definitely not what they show on T.V. It is more work than most expect, but if you get involved even a little, it seems to be an easy transition and balance of work and play. I was asked by the Campus Activities Board to represent them as an assistant. This was very exciting, because they design, plan and run events that happen on and around campus. Since I am a communications major, this is a great opportunity for me, and as close to field training as I could get. We had many events such as movie nights, fall family festival which is also known as parents weekend. I often feel like I have no time to do anything but work or write papers, but I always find at least and hour to myself to think about my day and plans for the next day. It is always a great idea to take even a few minutes to think about your own priorities and things you have to take care of, especially when you normally put others before yourself.

The best part of the month was when my parents flew down as well as my brother. My brother attends Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. I had not seen him since I came to SLU over the summer for the LEAP program. This month was actually really hard for me. I thought all the things I was involved with were going to balance out and be a lot easier then they are. I even became homesick. I moved away from Virginia with a great expectation of the new life I was about to embark on, however there was still

"Growing Pains"

So as my roommate and I were packing to leave for Christmas break, I looked back on my first semester in college. There were amazing times, and of course some rough times that I had to get through; however, no matter how hard they were, I actually had friends, always someone there to help me with any situation.

Winter Formal was amazing, cheerleading was going so well, and my classes… well they went as good as I had expected. Now that I could finally relax after the long grueling process of finding myself, trying to figure out who I was while SO much happened around me, I had the time of my life. Though I wanted nothing more than to get home to the familiar, and my family, I zipped up my last suitcase and hugged my roommate as I cried. But I was crying not because I was going to miss her (even though I was) but also because I was more ecstatic that I knew I had worked so hard and was able to come back in January with everyone else to start my second semester as a SAINT LEO LION!

Happy Holidays to you all, and I will be sure to write more next YEAR! Until then…. Be safe and remember, growing up hurts every once in a while, but you just have to be strong because there is always something to learn out of everything that happens in your life.

January 2008

So, when I came back from Christmas break, I expected so much. I figured nothing would have changed, and everything would stay just the way I left it. Well, boy was I naive. To my disappointment, it felt like I was starting my freshman year all over again. People had changed; their hair was colored and cut, friendships had severed, mended, or blossomed. I was so confused and disappointed. I didn’t want anything to change, I had been so lucky to have the beginning college experience of a lifetime, just to come back and find everything different. My roommate and I had sort of parted ways, which to all was really surprising, but to me, hurt more than anything I could have never guessed. A lot had happened in my family over Christmas break (my grandfather became very ill around Thanksgiving, and still hadn’t gotten better) and I admit, I didn’t give as much attention to the friends I left down at school. But how could a friendship so pure, and so loyal… not be the same or even stronger after time apart? Either way, I had to jump right into a new semester, new teachers, and yes, even a new sport-Baseball. My boyfriend and his younger brother (a fellow freshman) are both on the baseball team, and I’ve always loved to watch them play. It was my get away from basketball and cheerleading; this time I could just watch. Little did I know, that this, along with many other things I had involved myself with, would take up a lot of time away from my friends. I don’t regret getting so involved with school, I LOVE being a CAB assistant, and I LOVE working as an OL leader for next school year, I even love watching the baseball team… but I don’t love feeling like I gave up my friends to do it.

February 2008

About a month into my new semester, I felt a little better about everything that was going on. Even though things started rough, they were getting better, and I was finding out that I have mastered one of many important NON-academic traits while being here at Saint Leo - time management. I had been balancing things really well, and with cheerleading over, I had more time then ever to just enjoy being in Florida. So I thought… Valentine's Day came up, midterms came out of nowhere, and CAB had become a HUGE demand. Haha. Like any perfectionist, I got stressed; many of my friends would come up and just hug me, because they knew I would not make it through the day without some sort of comfort. Everything just became so habitual. I would wake up every morning, get dressed, go to class, eat lunch, go to my office and do work, see my boyfriend, do my homework, eat dinner (maybe), and go to bed. It made my day to talk to someone new, however I tried my hardest to relax on the weekends; even that became hard with the issues at home, and the baseball games to attend, or the CAB events to host. The last thing on my mind was grades… and that was a BAD IDEA. Being a freshman who is as involved as I am definitely takes its toll. You must know how to have time management, but also know when enough is enough. Even though that is a concept I have not mastered yet, I am learning how to strive to succeed in EVERY aspect of my life, not just in social or non-academic situations.

March 2008

March came up so rapidly. I had received good news at the beginning of the month; my father had spoken to my grandfather and he is doing much better than at the beginning of the semester. My grades were coming up, and I had actually made a difference in a kid’s life. I had to make a phone call on behalf of the admissions office here at Saint Leo, to talk to a family about my experience this summer in the LEAP program. His name was Cliff, and he was not sure if he wanted to go through with the program or not. I told him and his family about my experience, and just how much it changed my life as well as my perspective on college, months before my freshman year even began. Luckily, my advice and words encouraged him to not only attend Saint Leo, but go through with the summer program. I knew at that moment that Saint Leo was, with no question or regret, the place I needed to be for the next four years of my life. It had already done so much for me, I hadn’t even noticed. I have become a stronger, smarter, more responsible student while being here this short period of time; I could never guess what lay ahead for me here. My academic standards have always been set for me by my parents and me; yet unlike before, I know I can achieve them. Friendships I had lacked in high school, I had doubled them while being here, and they were friendships worth having 20-30 years from now. If you were to ask me before I left for the LEAP program in July, if I was to be this involved, or even think that a college could define a person, I would have said no. Now, I can strongly say that every aspect that Saint Leo stands for, I can relate to a part of myself that I have seen come out of me over the past 7 months. With only a short few weeks left until my first year in college comes to a close, I can see how the good, the bad, and yes even sometimes the worse, have helped me grow and mature as a person, a student, a daughter, and a Saint Leo Lion.

P.S. Yay for March Madness and Spring Break!!