I have friends

When I first got back to Oxy last night around 11:30 pm, after driving for almost fifteen hours, I was interrupted during my unpacking by at least three phone calls from my friends.

There’s nothing like having friends to make you feel welcome and at home. I was worried on the drive down that I would get to Oxy and spend the entire semester kind of disconnected from my work and my friends, like perpetually trying to find my place in a book only to discover every time that I was twenty pages behind where everyone else was. Or something like that, but more poetic.

As I drove towards the Stearns parking lot, it occurred to me that in a way it was like restarting the whole college experience — I’m back in the dorm I was in when I first began school, and I’ve been away for a semester so I get a free pass to make new friends and make Oxy a whole new place again.

But then I spent last night being enthusiastically welcomed back by all of my friends from the past two years, and I realized that I already have a home here, and it really isn’t that strange.
Then I went to Target and bought a Brita filter so I can drink the water.

I’m excited for this semester.