Shower Shoes, Mashed Potatoes and Starbucks

When I was 20 I was renting a brand new home in the town that I grew up in.  I was driving a sports car and had a closet full of clothes.  I went out a hundred times a week and was really enjoying my life.  That is until I got a phone call.

One Sunday afternoon my dad called.  He asked if I wanted to go back to college....HUH?! Now?  After I have a life and a house and a car and enough debt to rival that of the United States?  Are you kidding me?


So I stuttered a few times, shook my head a few more times and hung up the phone.  As I sat there eating my broccoli and cauliflower covered in cheddar, I looked around my home.  My home filled with couches and a kitchen set, a TV and VCR.  I looked down at the dishes and silverware and glass that I had filled with Diet Coke and thought to myself...NOW?  How exactly am I going to pull this off?

And then I got excited.



I had attended Community College for about one year and did less than stellar.  My heart and my head weren't into it, at all.  I had been working as a car salesperson for about three years by this point and although I had fallen into a life, going AWAY to college seemed like a great opportunity.  So I took it.

I called my dad back and asked if we could talk about how I could make it all work.  Long story short, he helped me with my debt and I paid for college with loans...loans I am still paying off, but it was worth it.  Had he not helped me, I could have never gone, I could have never had those two years in the dorms, I would have never become the student I became and I would not have the memories that I cherish.

I sold everything I had, moved in with my aunt to try and save a few bucks and applied to Kent State University.  My mom and step-dad drove me down to college to move in.  I was so excited I got there a night before my roommate and was scared to death sleeping in that big, cold, vinyl-floored room.  I remember thinking, "what have I gotten myself into?"

After the car salesperson life I had lived, I don't know what I was afraid of, Lord knows the things I had done, seen and been apart of at the dealership was nothing compared to the life in a college dorm.

The next day my roommate showed up and we were two peas in a pod.  She was literally made for me.  I instantly fell in love with her laugh and we quickly became friends.  We had the very best room, filled with a couch, two TVs, a refrigerator, and pink lofts.  I was at college, I wasn't 17, and I wasn't going to live like I was, our room was great.

We soon made friends with a few of the girls on the floor and the five of us were a great team.  We inspired each other to study, challenged each other to get A's on tests and were there for each other through break-ups and crappy boyfriends.

I would go back tomorrow!  Living away at college is a part of life that I wish everyone could experience.  I will be paying these loans for another ten years but I don't care.  I wouldn't change a minute of it.  Starbucks cafe mocha's at midnight, pizzas at 2 a.m., and cigarettes like they were good for us.  Total debauchery and I loved it.  Oh, and we all also made the Dean's List about every semester.  Life was great!

I learned at college how smart I really am.  I learned how to study, how to write, how to read and understand what I just read, and I learned how completely sacred girlfriends are.  I learned how very quiet a library can be, how college mashed potatoes are what really what makes the freshman 15 inevitable and the TRUE night to go out, is Thursday.  I learned about the four kids killed at Kent State and that a candle light tribute can be very moving.  I learning that I am an excellent test taker and that it is a total waste of time to have a boyfriend in college.  I learned about shower shoes and sweat pants and how to ride a bus.

I am so glad my dad made that call that day.  I am so glad that I took myself outside of the life path I was on, threw caution to the wind, and just did it.

I moved into the dorms a month before my 21st birthday.  Most people would have scoffed at the dorms at that age but I loved it.  It was a cherished part of my life.  Julie, Meghan, Janeen, and Kristen are a wonderful part of my past, and present.  It is interesting what life throws at you.  I guess it is what you do with that curve ball that shapes your life.

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