August 19, 2011

Sitting here after spending the day in Connecticut, a state almost 3000 miles from Boise, ID feels right. The weather being somewhat humid is so much better than the desert hot sun. The vegetation, which reminds my dad of Congo makes me feel like I’m in a jungle but I don’t mind. I don’t think I have seen so many trees before.

I visited Trinity College for the first time today and I liked it. It felt good to be walking on that campus. I still don’t know where everything is but I’ll learn soon enough. I keep hearing things about North Campus, the dorm I’m in that scares me, but what’s done is already done. Mostly though walking on the campus today made feel good because I realize how much I’m going to enjoy learning about Trinity and Hartford. It will be a new challenge to learn the public transportation system, visit the Harriet Beecher Stowe, or even figuring out this college thing, but underneath everything, I’m not nervous and the butterflies in my stomach aren’t there.

Yesterday though, I did have those butterflies. After getting delayed at Boise’s Airport for 6 hours, I thought that I would never get here. After getting to Las Vegas and having our flight to Hartford being delayed for the 2^nd time that day, I thought how I didn’t want to sleep at the Las Vegas Airport. After 5 long hours on the plane and getting into town at 2:30 am, I was happy to be here. I was even happier to be welcomed by people who took their time to make us feel welcome. I am also happy to report that my butterflies while flying are disappearing the more and more I fly.

So, I am sitting 3,000 miles away from home getting ready for the college adventure. How did I get here? Why did I go this far? Thanks to Quest Bridge, a program that works to connect low-income achieving students with academic opportunities, I am here today. After I learned about the program, I applied, got accepted, learned that I was going to Trinity, and found where Trinity actually is, my senior year was complete. It was like everything I had worked for all the six years of junior high and high school paid off. . Anyway, I accepted to be Trinity’s Class of 2015, never having visited the school but it felt right for me. Call me crazy, stupid or whatever, I feel like 4 years at Trinity will be awesome.

I miss Boise. I miss my family, my church, my friends, potato jokes, etc. I am going to miss the great foods I got to eat at home. I am going to miss my queen size bed. Heck, I’m going to miss all the arguing my sisters and I did for no reason. What college holds for me makes me excited. I am excited to share with the people I left behind or who are all around the country my experience. This blog will be a way of saying thank you for making it possible for me to be sitting here in Hartford, taking responsibility for myself and only myself after so many years of being responsible for many people. This isn’t anything fancy but it’s way to better update folks on my college experience.