My College Orientation Experience

There are only 48 days left until I move into my college dorm room in Columbus, Ohio. Right now, I'm at the point where half of me can't contain my excitement, while the other half of me is terrified. I know most incoming college freshman deal with these mixed feelings, but it's starting to really sink in for me.

I just got back from my freshman orientation, and let me tell you, it was quite an experience. My orientation lasted two days, with the option of staying overnight. The first day was made up of breaking into small groups with the other incoming freshman, while parents went to there own separate information panels. In my group, we had to do a lot of awkward icebreakers, and we listened to our orientation leader talk about anything ranging from student life to talking about what there is to do in Columbus. Everyone in my orientation group was in the same scholars program I'm in, and since we have to live together in the same dorm, it was really nice to meet some of them! I did connect well with some of the girls in my group which was good!

I signed up to stay overnight in one of the dorms that night and go to the evening activities my school had offered, but at the end of that first day I decided not to because although my orientation experience was fine, I was feeling a little overwhelmed with all the information I was being given and all the new people I met. So instead of staying the night, my parents took be out to a Mexican restaurant just down the street from campus. The food there was pretty great, I might add. Then I went back my Grandparents' house for the night, which is just about a half hour from Columbus.

The second day was basically just meeting with an adviser and making my schedule for the fall semester. Right now I'm not too happy with my schedule, but luckily it's still subject to change when AP scores arrive in a couple of weeks.

I didn't have time to take very many photos during orientation, but here are some of the ones I did take:

This first picture is of me at Buckeye Grove, a short pathway with lots of Buckeye trees near the west side of campus.

Next is a couple of pics of Ohio Stadium, otherwise known as "The Shoe." Pictures of the Shoe are pretty much obligatory if you visit Ohio State's campus, since football is such a big thing at Ohio State. The first pic was taken from the 12th floor of Morrill Tower (one of the residence halls), so sorry about the dirty window getting in the way of the picture!

The next couple pictures are of the Thompson Library, the main and biggest library on campus. It's too bad I didn't get any pictures of the inside of the library, because it looks pretty cool! But if you're wondering what the big green space is in the picture below, it's what Ohio State calls "The Oval."

And for the next picture, yes, I'm going to be that freshman.

So that's all I have about my orientation. As I'm writing this, there's a big thunderstorm in my area right now, so hopefully there won't be too much damage!

Talk to you soon,

♥ Colleen

So...Graduation Recap

Graduation went by in a blink of an eye. After counting down the days to graduation since early September, it feels weird that graduation's already over. Like where did the time go??

The actual ceremony was on June 6th. I was so fortunate to have both sets of grandparents, one of my aunts, and my parents all be able to come! The ceremony went pretty well, and success story for me: I didn't trip! (I mean, I did wear wedges instead of legit heels...but even still, I was a little worried about tripping. So yay me for not making a fool out of myself).

I did have one little fail, though. You know when everyone throws up their caps at the end of the ceremony? Well, that didn't happen for me. At the graduation rehearsal they told us that we should take our tassel off (because certain tassels mean different things, they would be nice keepsakes and so on) before throwing up our caps in case we don't find our cap afterwards. So here I am at the end of the ceremony, everyone has taken their cap off and tassel off, ready to throw them up in the air. Of course, only I wouldn't be able to get my tassel off my cap (why I couldn't, I don't know) and by the time I finally got it off, everyone had already thrown their caps in the air. So, yeah. Oops. I missed out on that, but I guess there's always college graduation. Do people still throw up their caps at college graduation ceremonies? I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Anyway, there really isn't much else to report on graduation. Lots of pictures were taken, but since my Grandpa was the one taking most of my pictures, I haven't gotten them yet...but I do have a couple to show you! The first one was taken by my friend's Dad at graduation, and the second was taken a day before graduation, so that it could be put in the Before/After picture frame I'll also show you below.

Just me and some of my friends...I'm the third one from the right

hmm...I don't know why it looks like I'm clenching my fists, but that's me, looking happy to be done with high school.

The left pic in the frame is from my first day of kindergarten and the right is obviously from graduation. Quite a big difference, huh? :)

And lastly, I just wanted to share a picture of one of the OSU-related grad gifts I got...isn't it cute? :)

So that's my graduation in a nutshell. Maybe I'll share more pics once I get them from my family and friends, but the weird thing is, I don't feel any different now that graduation is over. It hasn't quite hit me yet that I'm done with high school and that I won't be seeing my friends everyday once August comes around. But to be honest, it probably won't hit me until I'm sitting in my college dorm room getting ready for the first day of classes in the fall. Anyhoo, I am happy to be finally done with high school! I can't wait to head off to Columbus. :)

♥ Colleen

New Beginnings...

Hey, there! I'm Colleen, a recent high school graduate getting ready to embark on a (hopefully) incredible journey in college once the fall rolls around. I'll be attending The Ohio State University next year, so I'll be leaving my small hometown in the Chicago Suburbs for the rather large city of Columbus, OH. I'll be sad to leave Chicago, but I'm so excited to be able to explore a new city and call Columbus home for the next 4 years!

I don't know who will ever read this first blog post, but if you happen to stumble upon this humble blog of mine you're probably wondering why I'm starting this blog in the first place. Well, last week at my graduation rehearsal, me and all the other seniors received an envelope from our guidance counselors. In the envelope was the letter we had written to our future selves at our freshman orientation. It was so cool to read that letter I had written to myself 4 years ago. It reminded me of how much I've changed, and how much my goals have changed since my freshman year of high school. 

The point I'm trying to get at is that I really want to have something like that letter when I graduate from college, too. I want something a little better than that letter even, so that's why I'm starting this blog. I want to be able to see my thoughts, highs, lows, events I went to, friends I made, and everything and anything that will happen in these next 4 years. People keep telling me how fast the college years will go by, so by making this blog, I'll be sure to document the memories I make throughout college. I'm sure I'll change a lot throughout college, so it would be fun to look back through my blog posts and see everything that's happened!

If you're still reading this (you're pretty awesome if you are), I'll be ranting on this blog about everything from college life, beauty, fashion, my thoughts and whatever else comes to mind. Oh and there's sure to be lots of nail-related content on here as well, since I have another blog, Dream It Up Nails, which I will be continuing to post on as well! 

I don't know about you, but I'm excited! :) I would love to ramble on more, but I have to get ready to go to my friend's grad party, so talk to you soon!

♥ Colleen