It all started as a suitcase...

I had a plan while I was packing for college, to use one modest-sized suitcase, and to just bring the bare minimum that would keep me through the week until I returned home. I succeeded with the one-suitcase deal on move in day, but the skimpiness of my belongings somehow turned into this:

Minus the microwave. As much as I would love to indulge my lazy side, I doubt housing would be too happy with me if I dragged their microwave to my room. I'm still not entirely certain how six weeks of living in a dorm made me slowly lug my entire life, but lug I did...Plus the shopping rampages probably didn't help much. My life has made its way into an 11 x 15 square feet dorm room, and the bare minimum stayed at my house. I didn't know it was possible to feel home-y in a room that causes you to sweat if you so much as breathe; I'm guessing the Johnny Depp poster helped. I mean, how can you not feel at ease when some guy who has proposed to a million and a half women is right above your bed? It's utterly impossible.

Intimidating mass of stuff aside, it's safe to say I finally feel like a college student. Too bad I only got that feeling the day before I go home. I've learned some important skills in my first month at Penn State: To try to get ahead in homework, even if it seems terribly dorky; that saying "hi" to people I'm not friends with me won't make me roll on the floor and die, and one should consider going to bed by midnight early...as long as you can drown yourself in obscene amounts of coffee the next morning. Me and the cappuccino machine have become best friends this past month. And while classes have been significantly more challenging than high school, I'm an English nerd who writes essays for fun, so adding a grade and a few specific guidelines to what I've already been doing wasn't as scary as I assumed.

Already, I'm feeling like an adult. Even if I do still have Ernest...Poor thing has to suffocate in a bag pre-move out day.

It's been a quality first semester. I can get used to this title of "college student."

Namaste.