End of Semester Wrap Up

I am sitting at my kitchen table at home, warm cup of coffee in hand, plenty of noise in the background, with the feeling of the heater blowing up my spine. I haven’t been this content in a long time. I finished my final exam of my first semester of college this afternoon and while I have grown to love my new home, I felt an overwhelming sense of comfort wash over me knowing that I could finally go home and spend more than three days there. Instead, I get an entire month.

To say that this semester at UWM was hard is honestly an understatement. Not only was it a somewhat difficult transition into this new step of my life, but it was also emotionally draining. I feel like when someone asks how college is going, it’s almost required of the student to say that it’s going amazing and that they love it. That’s not always the case. I, through no control of my own, ended up going through a lot of unfortunate situations. I had to say goodbye to two women who treated me as if I was their own child, I lost contact with some very important people to me, I broke my ankle, had more health problems, I had to learn how to make friends—which let me tell you, it turns out I’m not very good at! My bipolar was affecting me a lot as well, which caused me to shut myself in at times. My grades probably reflected that. On top of all of those things, I underwent some more personal experiences that I’ll write about another time.

College is a very weird experience because no matter where you are, you don’t feel like you have a legitimate home. College doesn’t feel like home, but your house doesn’t feel like home either. Everything is different, although not much has actually changed. It takes a lot of getting used to, not feeling like you belong anywhere.

Despite the fact that I was dealing with a lot, I did really enjoy it. I made some truly amazing friends and I began learning more about not only myself, but about the world around me. I am learning how to be more independent, how to reach out to people around me, how to enjoy myself even when I feel like the world is caving in on me. I’m learning so many amazing life lessons in such a short amount of time that it is slightly overwhelming, but overall a good thing.

After this rollercoaster of a semester, I can honestly say that I am nothing but excited for the semesters to come. Although this semester was nothing like I imagined it would be, my hopes for the rest of my college experience are high. I know that I will do great things and achieve my goals through a lot of hard work, it’s just going to be a lot to get there.

All I can say right now is that I am happy to be home. I’m happy to be surrounded by people that love and care about me. I’m happy to be able to relax without the stress of school weighing on me. I’m happy to be able to get in the car and know exactly where I’m going no matter where it is. I’m happy to drive around with my friends with no destination in mind, just driving because we don’t get to drive in college. I know I rag on Muskego a lot, but I would never want to grow up anywhere else.

I’m just happy, and that in itself is something to be thankful.

I want to wish a happy holidays to all of you, and I hope that your new year brings in new experiences and more happiness than all the years before. Thank you for listening.

Until next time,

Katie