I'm not just talking about the snow, which I am sure you all can expect is just about killing me right now. I have spent the entire day writing a paper that really did not warrant such attention (yes, there were Kazaa intermissions), I'm still in my pajamas and I'm pretty sure my car is going to be towed -- what is it about the snow that makes one so incredibly inactive? Never before has my life been affected by the weather. It's not an issue in Arizona...ever. Just as Joe Millionaire was starting (yeah, by the way, what was that? Evan's modeling pictures were thoroughly horrifying) my dad called to gloat over the mild 75 degrees in AZ. And I scare myself because, right now, I would be happy with even 30 degrees, as long as I could go to the gym.
I've been feeling really weird, like I am living some kind of parallel life, because I was here visiting my sister on this exact same weekend last year. A U-Guide party, Buddhist and what I now can identify as "late-night" at the Hall comprised my visit. It was fun but, to be explicit, I believe my exact thoughts as my plane sped down the runway back to AZ were something to the effect of "Please let me get into UCLA. I think my entire happiness is derived from the presence of sunlight."
Maybe I was onto something.
Or not. How many times have I expressed my utter stupidity and regret for once being so anti-U.Va.? However, my experience this weekend pointed out an important fact about the scene at U.Va. -- one cannot just visit and attempt to ascertain how ridiculously wonderful this school can be.
Case in point: an adorable senior from my high school came to stay with me on Friday. (Background info: all-girls school victim, fabulous lacrosse player, works hard and plays hard, wears Lacoste and carries her overnight things in a Vera Bradley -- perfect U.Va. candidate).
Early decision is a crap shoot. But I will be entirely disillusioned with the people at Peabody Hall if my friend is not sticking the U.Va. sabers on her car come April 1. Ohthe stories I have heard about getting into Virginia ... it all just makes me more and more grateful to be here.
Anyway, I hope I did not scare my visitor. I'm not sure she really expected the "new" me -- let's just say I was quite the regimented high school student. Set times for eating, working out, talking on the phone, completing every single problem set ever assigned to me. I was ridiculous. I also was unhappy.
I realize now that the reason I was turned off by my visit to Virginia last February was precisely because of how fabulous college really is -- no schedules, no busy work, no parents. Quite frankly -- and maybe this is because I am a first-year -- my life contains almost no vestiges of who I was a year ago. I am completely out of control, and I admit it. And the thought of losing that control scared me to death at this time last year.
Should I postpone reading that anthropology in favor of a Tuesday night outing? Of course. Who wouldn't?
You get my point.
Ultimately, I see a lot of myself in the girl I hosted this weekend. My friend even took to calling her a "mini-Megan." Cute, I know.
But true.
I wanted her to see how great U.Va. is ... outside the classroom. But I know from personal experience that fraternity parties, the Corner scene and hanging in the dorm with the girls do not do our school justice. It goes without saying that we know how to have fun. Yet it is not until one has the whole experience for one's self that one can really understand college life -- meeting new people, living in a dorm, an entire history of frat sludge engrained on pointy-toed party shoes ... ultimately, being independent and finding out that it is all right to lose control. Each successive day at Virginia is never the same, and I love that ... now.
As I parted ways with my poor guest (who is stranded in the snow at the Courtyard Marriott as I type this), I felt I had failed her in some way because I know she can see but not feel how much we love our school. It's an awful feeling to be on the outside looking in, and I honestly wish I could transfuse some of my overly abundant happiness to Phoenix for this girl. I sincerely hope she will experience the best four years of her life in Charlottesville.
How great is college?
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