About a week before I left to go to Penn State, I went and visited my friend at a university in my hometown of Pittsburgh, called Duquesne University. The school itself is very good, but with only around five thousand students I always knew it was not the school for me. Never the less, I still wanted to see what it was like so I went one Sunday night. Oh my, was I in for a treat. The night consisted of dodging several drunken students, and attempting to get around an unbelievable security lock down on my friend’s dorm. The security lock down was so bad, that in order for me to see her room I had to jump an eight foot fence and climb through one of her friend’s windows on the first floor. I felt like I was Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. Well anyway, we stayed up until about four in the morning having a good time with all of her knew friends, and then eight o’clock rolled around. My friend had forgotten that classes started the next day and her first class was at 8:05 AM. The chaos that morning had me laughing so hard I about cried. I had never seen someone so lost and confused on her first day of school. I went home thinking that day that I really did want to take college seriously, but since I’m a lot like her I may have to work a little harder than I had bargained.

I know this may sound ridiculous, but without my friend I would not be as prepared for college as I was the first day I moved to Penn State. I had experienced the chaos of being unprepared and made a promise to myself that I would change my ways. I wanted to be organized, on time, and ready for the challenges that came before me. I didn’t want to be scatterbrained anymore, like I was in high school. College isn’t as easy as high school was, I can’t just roll out of bed and do my homework on the way to school. I have to take time, get myself to sit down, and put thought into my homework assignments, so far I have impressed myself.

Since I have been here I have managed to do the unthinkable, balance my social life with my classes and homework. The other day I caught myself reading as I was getting ready to go out. I am very impressed with the new me and I refuse to let it go. If I ever find myself getting out of hand I am going to look in the mirror and say, “Karrie Crane I’m going to kick your ass if you don’t get your stuff together.” Then I will proceed to do the impossible, kick my own ass. Then again I guess if all else fails I’ll make myself sign up for a cycling class at the gym; that would do the trick. In all seriousness, I will maintain this new me because I do want to succeed, after all my most dominate trait is the fact that I am one hundred percent sure that I will succeed at anything thrown my way, even college.