Well, it's November...

And that can only mean one thing-

Thanksgiving Break.

It arrives at the perfect moment, too. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Everyone is sick of everyone and missing their friends from back home. Sure, it was awesome meeting all of these new people, but it's not like high school. You don't get to go home at three o'clock. No, you live with them. They're there when you walk into your dorm. 24/7. There is no break. You used to love the novelty of random visiters dropping by. Now, all you want to do is work on that paper due in three hours, finish your WebWork (of which you only understand 2 out of 7 problems), and figure out how you can dupe your professor into believing that your printer really did break, and the computers in Danforth's lab really were  all taken, and can't you please, please email her the paper after class.

Do not consider yourself a bad person for feeling this way. It happens to everyone.

Anyway, I am roughly 80 days into my first year at uni. And I am very much looking forward to this break.

Don't get me wrong; they've been an awesome 80 days. But they've been tiring. These three months have pretty much been a crash course on time management, and the only things I have to learn from are my own screw-ups. No one told me college would be this hard.

Here are some things that surprised me about life at good old Washington University.

1) I don't party very much.

I was always pretty tame in high school--I didn't drink, I didn't do drugs, I didn't have sex. I don't know.... I was always in the mindset of, "I'll do that when I'm in college." Or, "Just wait, it will be so much better when it's a college party." From the movies I'd seen and the stories I'd heard, I thought college would be a place where I would work hard and party harder.

This is, as I quickly found out, not the case.

I work alright. I work hours upon hours upon hours in my dorm room plugged into iTunes or Pandora and take breaks only to check my Facebook and use the restroom.

There is fun, but it's scheduled and "responsible." Think the "good, clean" kind.

2) ROTC takes up a lot more time that I was originally told it would.

I was told it would be (to quote LTC Griggs) "a class and a half." Again, not so.

Not one of my other classes issues 60+ pounds of equipment on the first day. Not one of my other classes makes me shoot weapons I'm obviously entirely too small for (although, that was awesome, and I think I want to join rifle team). Not one of my other classes forces me to wake up at ungodly hours and do mindless exercises.

But I like ROTC about 70 percent of the time, which is more than average (so sayeth an MS4 who spoke to me at Lab today). I guess there's that to be thankful for. (See what I did there?)

3) I have only made a few really good friends.

College was this place where I was supposed to make my "forever friends." And I think I have made them. But their number is much lower than I anticipated. I've met a ton of people, but I only hang out with a select few.

However (and this is the really remarkable thing), I'm really happy. That insecure little girl I used to be is still inside me, desperate to please everyone I come into contact with--but she's muffled. I am more than content with the close friends (small though the amount may be) I have here. They're amazing people, good people, and I'm lucky to know them.

That's it for tonight. I've got so much homework to do (but then again, so do most college freshmen/procrastinating champions).

Oh, one more thing.

4) I feel really stupid a lot of the time.

I know I'm smart. I wouldn't have gotten into this place if I wasn't. But sometimes I can't help thinking... did the admissions committee make a mistake in taking me? Because they must have. I couldn't possibly have been as qualified as the 1500 other people in my class.