Almost a Sophomore

Wow, this year has come and gone in a flash. When I moved into my lovely closet-sized dorm room last August, it felt like the day would never come that I'd be packing it back up to end my freshman year. Now that the time has actually come around, that hectic and HOT move-in seems like it was just yesterday. 

Can you believe that we won't be the youngest batch of SMU kids anymore? It's going to be so different labeling ourselves as sophomores rather than the newbies. I bet it'll take a few tries for all of us to get the sophomore response down when the "what year are you" question is thrown out, but I can't wait to see all the incoming freshman during their first few weeks, nervously shuffling around campus like I remember so vividly doing myself. That may sound mean, but I only say it with the upmost excitement for them. Figuring out how to get around and live around campus was great fun. Just think, Facebooking while pretending to listen to professors in giant lectures, double swiping friends in at Umphrey Lee by slipping ID cards through the side window and wiping the X's off our hands at bars in an attempt to mask our under-21-ness are all phenomenal skills that they have yet to discover. 

Frankly, I'm a little saddened that I'll be moving out of my dorm next week, and jealous that two new girls will be living in the hall where I've made so many great memories. All of the girls on my hall have grown so close, and while we may have grunted the entire year about trying to fit our clothes in the closet, being able to walk right down the hall to hang out with one another at all times of the day and night is a practice that I'll greatly miss. 

It'll definitely be funny, too, to see all the new class of 2013 kids out at night. I remember how excited and scared I was walking into my first fraternity party with the handful of friends that I had just met. I was so cautious, as a girl who was interested in joining a sorority, to keep my behavior in check as I didn't want to anger the older, sorority girls who I figured were watching my every move. Now that I'm in a sorority, all of my older sisters tell me how ridiculous it is to see the new girls basically kissing up to them during the first semester in an attempt to form a good reputation for themselves, and I'm pretty interested to see how that actually plays out.  

I've loved and learned so much about SMU and myself throughout this first year. Looking back, my freshman year has lived up to everything that I had hoped for and expected. Evaluating everything from the academics to the social scene and the city of Dallas itself, I couldn't be happier here at SMU, and am hopeful that my remaining three years here will only get better.