It's Okay.

Hey future WEPO ladies!  Now is around the time you all are probably beginning to brainstorm shopping lists for your new college adventure.  Some of you are excited, a lot of you are nervous, most of you have questions, and a few of you have all of the above.  Whichever emotion you are feeling or however many “silly questions” you have, we are all here to tell you:  It’s going to be okay.  That’s actually the theme of my blog for today.  So for everyone reading this, it’s okay…

They just remodeled the inside too!

1. if you forget something at home.  I know I definitely left things at home, but it is super easy for your parents to ship whatever you forgot.  Even more convenient is Mclanahans, which is basically an everything-you-could-ever-want-or-need store.  It has literally every item possible from food to football gear to birthday cards.  And there are a lot of other stores near campus too!
2. to ask questions.  As freshman, you probably don’t want to be “that girl” asking for directions when you can’t find your class.  News flash: our campus holds over 40,000 students.  AKA our campus is huge, so go ahead and look at a map!  Also, if you are confused about something in class or didn’t hear the deadline for that assignment, don’t be afraid to ask the person next to you or even go up to the teacher at the end of class.
3. you don’t know exactly what you want to do with your life.  That’s what freshman year is for!  This year is all about exploring different options and finding out what you’re really passionate about.  Yes, some people will have a picture-perfect image of what they want to do with their life, but in reality the average college student changes their major three times.
4. if you don’t know what clubs to join.  My advice: join them all.  Once again, I really recommend keeping an open mind throughout your entire college career because you never know what you could fall in love with.  If there are several clubs or sports you are interested in, look into all of them!  With most clubs you can be as active (or inactive) as you want, so try all of them out and then you can weed out the ones you aren’t really feeling later.  (A little secret… get involved in THON! You will be so mad if you don’t).

Lauren, myself, and Marissa from my THON committee with Tucker Haas! (Google him, he’s a superstar in my book.)

5. to have embarrassing moments.  Trust me, I have had my share of awkward, embarrassing moments.  The great part about them is that they are hilarious stories later.  If you feel like you will never recover from an awkward moment, come talk to me and I will tell you one of my stories to make you feel better.
6. to be yourself.
  This is the most important one out of all of these.  Truly, I promise you that whether you use a backpack or purse, raincoat or normal coat, study 2 hours versus 10 hours for an exam, or use .5 or .7 lead (you get the picture…), nobody is going to sit there and judge you because I know for a fact someone else on campus will be doing the same exact thing.  So if you want to use a fanny pack to carry your pencils to an exam, go for it!  As long as you stay true to your wonderful personality there is no reason your experience at Penn State will not be the best time of your life.