Aug. 16, 2013
Kelsey Block is a sophomore in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities who grew up on a small family owned and operated dairy farm in the “Thumb” of Michigan. Kelsey began writing a blog during her freshman year about the ups and downs, the ins and outs, and the just plain oddities of life as a member of the RCAH at MSU.
I can now officially say that I am a sophomore at Michigan State University. Wow. To quote one of my best friends, “That’s a thing.” It feels like my freshman year went by so fast and I absolutely cannot wait to go back.
Now, that probably sounds very odd if you’ve been keeping up with my posts since the beginning, but let me explain. After getting over the initial shock of living in the city, of not milking cows everyday, of not driving 26 miles to get to the nearest Wal-Mart, I began to carve a niche for myself in the MSU community.
I made great new friends who are somehow both similar and curiously different from me. I worked hard in my classes and was (and still am) genuinely excited about my schoolwork.
So, my advice to future college freshman is this: It will take time, (maybe more than you anticipate), and it will not be easy, (in fact, it will probably be harder than you imagine), but it will be worth it.
And now for some quick lessons learned:
- Work hard, even when you think you can’t anymore.
- Reach for the sky even if you might come up short.
- Be nice and try not to be too quick to judge others—they want the same things you do.
- Don’t get discouraged if your plans change—whether for the weekend or for life.
- On that note, don’t freak out when you change yourself—you’ve got new friends, a new place to live, heck even new food to eat. You won’t be the same person you were at 16 as you will be in college.
- Don’t be afraid to be nerdy—it’s FUN to know stuff.
Read more of Kelsey’s blog, Cows2College>>