I’m crazy excited

I’m from South Carolina, so whenever anyone asks me where I'm going to college, and I answer, I'm questioned further: How did you find Centre? Why Kentucky? Where is Danville? At my small, private school most seniors go to University of South Carolina, Wofford College, or another well-known school that is very close to home. Consequently, people want to know; how I found out about a school that no one from my high school had even applied to...ever.

I was having a horrible time deciding which colleges I wanted to apply to. So, on September 20 (10 days before my school's deadline for my final college application list.) I sat myself down to read the entire Fiske College Guide. Every one of my friends had picked out the one school that they were dying to get into. I was ready to read every word in that book to find what I was looking for, but it turned out I didn't have to look very far before I found a school that caught my eye: Centre. It's a good thing that the college of my dreams didn't start with an X, because I think I would have gotten very tired of that book.

Centre attracted me because of its small, traditional-looking campus, hands-on professors, intimate learning environment, and unofficial policy among the students that if you work hard, you get to play hard, too. I knew I was in love when I read Loren Pope's description of Centre in his book, "The Colleges that Change Lives." All it took after that was a visit to Centre to seal the deal for me. The admission office was so cool and unintimidating, and the people I met when I stayed overnight were so similar to my friends: fun, hard-working, and spontaneous, and focused on what they were in college to do.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about going to college in August. I'm going to miss my family and my friends, and my room, and my hometown. But mostly, I'm crazy excited about meeting new people, learning from awesome professors, and experiencing all that Centre has to offer.

This summer is crazy, and it's fun. I'm working for my dad, a very hardcore man. He believes that girls should be strong and capable and, therefore, sends me off to do jobs fit for a 250-pound man. I do it though! Three days ago I unloaded two tons of pea gravel from the back of a pickup truck onto a wheelbarrow, hauled it across a yard, and spread it across a walkway.

This summer I've finally learned that hard, hard work makes you feel good (even though you may have a really sore back afterwards.) This summer, I'm also focusing on spending my last summer at home with my nine best friends. We've worked it out so that we are all either off work or awake at 2:00 in the afternoon so that we can go to the lake, play Frisbee in our park, fish in the massive pond that sits behind my friend's house, or relax in my garage while we listen to Dave Matthews.

Every adult I speak to about college tells me that this is the last care-free summer of my life. Hard work is ahead and I have to squeeze every drop of happiness out of this summer, chill, and get ready for an even greater time in my life. I'm havin' fun, workin' hard, and as a very smart man from South Carolina once said, "I'm searchin' for all the hot water I can get into, 'cause it's keeping me clean."