Less than a week left

I've sat in front of my computer for the last few days, watching as more and more of my fellow bloggers arrive at college. After spending the weekend with one at Maryland, it makes me wonder whether, by next Sunday, I will be ready to begin my college life at Northwestern.
Despite being largely packed, I'm still missing my laptop, have no way to get a TV, and will probably be out shopping for the next few days preparing. Yet, as I've sat watching random movie after movie at my dad's home (recommend: Skeleton Key and Pretty Persuasion), I've become slightly fearful that I might not be prepared to go to college and make new friends that will need to last me for four years.

For the last thirteen years, my friends haven't changed that much. Three of my closest friends have remained constant, another I've known for 8 years, and the rest have been minor additions. I am scared of whether I will be able to make the same close friends that will last a lifetime, just like my high school friends.

But, then I visited Ben at Maryland, and at first I wasn't too encouraged. Over the course of Saturday, it was mostly me and him spending time together, and many of the people we met seemed off kilter...until Sunday morning.

As we sat in the cafeteria, eating the worst french toast known to man, a kid walked by, stopped, and said in excitement, "Hey Ben!" We proceeded to talk for a few minutes, and by the time we left, I felt better already about making friends in college. The excitement that the Maryland student showed when seeing Ben was one that wasn't false or fabricated; it came straight from the heart and showed general enthusiasm at seeing him. While I don't know whether or not they will be friends as college proceeded, it made me realize something: while I might not make friends initially, I know that there will be people who I'm excited to see and are excited to see me, and they will become my friends in college, just like my friends in high school. And to be able to see that in a little more than a week at Maryland, some random person already feels that way about Ben, makes me excited to go to college. I will have the opportunity to run into 8,000 students, each of whom could become a close friend of mine. And the prospect of the new friendships I can forge, and the lives I can change, makes it difficult to patiently wait for September 12, and the start of orientation.

Until that point in time, I hope you all continue enjoying college, and I look to begin that enjoyment ASAP.

By the way, my school, Northwestern, opened its football season with a victory, unlike my contemporary at Duke.