College Update :)

Hey there, so happy to see you!!

I thought y’all might enjoy a wee look into my new life as a college student, so today I’m going to walk you through my progress on my bingo sheet.

“But Ava!!” you say. “What bingo sheet?? You forget that we don’t have the ability to read your mind!!” Ah yes, you’re so right. Allow me to explain.

About a month ago I decided I wanted to make myself a bingo to fill out during my first days/weeks at school. I went online for inspiration, but the only college bingo sheets I could find were highly suspect, secular, and somewhat concerning. So I took it upon myself to make my own.

Armed with my handy-dandy free Canva account, I created my own bingo card, which I include here for your viewing pleasure.

As you can see, it’s absolutely gorgeous and oh so professional. And now for the debriefing.

say hi to everyone on your floor ✅

I…think I’ve done this. I’m saying I’ve done this. I live on the fourth floor (ergo, the top floor) and it’s by no means full, so there’s fewer girls up here to meet. We sat by hall and floor during the Jumpstart sessions before classes actually started, so I have met everyone at least.

find your seat for chapel ✅

We have assigned seats for chapel, as I’ve already mentioned. They gave us a Campus Passport activity to complete one day, and one of the locations on the passport was the Centennial Chapel (with the purpose of finding our seats). Well, when we hiked over there to search out our seats, the doors were locked. We tried the other doors, with the same results. All locked.

We had someone help us visualize where our seats were, and decided that was just the way things were going to be. Fortunately, the next day the chapel was open, so we managed to get in and figure out the lay of the land.

do laundry ✅

Laundry from the fourth floor is no small undertaking. You have to lug not only your laundry basket full of clothes all the way down to the basement of the building, but also your laundry detergent (which is startlingly heavy). Then you have to remember you can’t just drop your detergent lid full of soap in your load and walk away, since that lid is kind of necessary when you’re walking back up the four flights of stairs with your jug of detergent. It wouldn’t do to spill it all over the place 😐

Besides that, incident-free 😊

try every line in the cafeteria ❌

I have one line left to try. There’s the main line (which changes every day, every meal), the pizza corner, the grill, the salad bar, the sandwich line, and the allergen-free line. I’ve been to all but the allergen-free line…which does look significantly healthier than what’s in the main line 👀

I’m annoyed at their breakfasts, which are all basically the same: what’s meant to be eggs, “breakfast potatoes” (only heated, not actually seared or whatever), some manner of suspect breakfast protein, biscuits that are too hard to eat with jam, gravy, and various not-quite-ripe fruit. Alas. No one really eats breakfast, so I suspect they don’t try as hard with it as with the other meals.

go to the public library ❌

It’s like…a half hour walk there and I don’t have a car. I’ll make it there one of these weekends where I don’t have classes or plans or suchlike. I need the next book in the Anne of Green Gables series!! I brought books three and four, but I’ll soon need the next eight.

find a climbing tree ✅

I’ve actually found at least two. And hung out quite comfortably in both. I called my darling mother and facetimed my bestie during one tree session and startled numerous people in so doing. Apparently the youth of this campus do not make a habit of spending their leisure hours festooned in the shrubbery *shrugs*

go to a football game ✅

I didn’t really want to go to that game…I don’t do sports. I don’t play them, don’t watch them, don’t really associate with them. But for the greater good, I went. I saw a little over a quarter of the game and the halftime show (definitely the best part of the game) and got my picture with the mascot 👌 oh and managed to snag a free towel.

make a new friend ✅

YAYYYY I HAVE FRIENDSSS!!! My roommate and I get along superbly and we’ve adopted a girl from down the hall. She is ours now and we will not be returning her. She’s a package deal and comes with a buddy herself (not complaining about this arrangement, since he has a car 👀). That comprises the core group, but I’m also friendly/almost friends with several other people from our floor, my classes, and…random redheads because we’re just cool like that.

find a church ❌

I’ve been church hopping…but haven’t decided fully which one I’ll make my home for the next few months. The first week I went to my brother’s church, a really tiny AG church. The people were so sweet and so nice, but they were all older and I would dearly appreciate a younger crowd as well.

The next week I went to College Church, which is a Nazarene church right across the road from our school. It was an interesting mix of a more traditional style and a contemporary vibe. Very interesting (and I ended up in the choir too :D). A lot more college students and younger folks here, since it is just across the road.

And this week I went to one of my friends’ church!! I say it’s her church, but really it’s just her denomination (I do believe she’s going to call it her church though. Don’t quote me on that 👀). I rather liked it. And also discovered that the worship at my church is phenomenal.

Apparently what I’m looking for is my church. I want going to church to be like going to church back home, and that’s not going to happen. Alas. Going to church has always been like going home. I know everyone and everyone knows me, I know where everything is, and I never have to wonder what’s going to happen next.

finish one week of classes ✅

YAYAYYAYAYY HUZZAH FOR WEEKENDS AND NO CLASSES!!!

I did indeed survive the first week of classes. They were mostly syllabus-oriented and had very light homework loads, so I was rather chuffed by that. I know they’ll steadily ramp up in difficulty and assignments, but for now I’m living the life.

try the rock wall ❌

I question why I put this on here. Why would I want to climb our rock wall? It’s the second tallest in a university in America, for goodness’ sake. Do I like heights?? Not particularly. Do I trust the climbing equipment?? I’m not sure. Will I eventually do it anyway?? Hopefully.

go to a school event ✅

I’ve gone to so many. Dodgeball tournament, Ollies Follies (our series of athletic games, wacky games, and a variety show to cap it all off), a block party, a recreation…thing, the church fair–oodles of school events.

go to the pool ❌

I’m actually not much of a pool person. I never learned how to swim very well (I can swim long enough to be resuced from drowning, and that’s probably it) and would rather sit on the side. But hey, we do have a hot tub (supposedly). I need to figure out how to access it…

introduce yourself to a professor ✅

I procrastinated on this one and waited until I had no new professors to introduce myself to. So instead, I introduced myself to my sociology professor on our second day of classes. However!! The class is so large (over a hundred students) that otherwise he would never have connected my name to my face. Yay for me.

take a walk ✅

Have I ever taken a walk. Every day I take an extended hike from one end of campus to the other, climbing endless stairs and dodging daring scooters. I walked to our local park with my brother and he took us the long way home. Walking is an unescapable part of my life now.

picnic in the gazebo ✅

This was officially supposed to be a picnic in the gazebo, but when we went to picnic there the other day, a girl was already in there and she didn’t look eager for company. So we sat in the grass by the gazebo instead. I think it should still count, so–yay, I make the rules around here!!

follow up on job application ✅

I want to work in the library here on campus, but they only hire so many students at a time. I’m waiting for them to realize that they need me and my two years of experience desperately.

Anyway, I talked to a library personage on move-in day about a job, and then the week after they emailed me about an open position they happened to have and asked if I had seen it/applied for it. I replied that I already had an application in the system, they said ok cool, and that was that.

I haven’t heard back from them since and that concerns me.

call home ✅

I haven’t called home as often as I should…sorry Mom. But I spent my entire afternoon yesterday talking to the people on the home front and thus got zero cleaning or laundry done. It’s gotten to where I can’t remember what I’ve told to my bestie, my boyfriend, my various family members, or just my journal. It’s a mess.

eat at Crush ❌

In the basement of our dining hall is a mini-fast-food place and also a salad bar, which you can use meal swipes for or use your flex or tiger dollars (not really sure about those). Anyway, it’s called Crush. I have yet to eat there because that would require me to figure out something new, and also because it hasn’t been open due to some vandalism or some such thing.

reserve a music room ❌

The fine arts building is so far across campus…but I yearn for a piano…

investigate study areas ❌

Where is there to study anyway. The library has too many people. Outside is too hot. The other buildings are…foreign to me. My room?? Perfect. My blankets and all my books and my preferred distractions.

take a picture of a squirrel ✅

We have black squirrels here, folks. We also have grey squirrels. We have so many. I expect a full third of my camera roll to be attempts at the squirrel shot of the century. Here’s a few of varying quality for your viewing pleasure.

take a selfie with the Eternal Flame ✅

We also have not only an eternal flame, but the eternal flame. It supposedly never goes out, but I have my suspicions. I shan’t show you the selfie, as that includes my face, but here’s a nice shot of the flame and its fence.

see what’s within walking distance ❌

I’ve…kind of done this?? A bit?? I know there’s a Goodwill and Jewel Osco approximately twenty minutes away by foot, and that the library is about half an hour out. What other stores could I possibly need??

Coda

And there you have it. Three weeks of school, and only one bingo has been achieved. It’s been quite the adventure though!! Stay tuned for more results 🫡

Always,

Ava 🎒

p.s. I’ve also joined a challenge set forth by one of my substackian friends, Evelyn Marie, in which we must forego Pinterest for the entire month of September. As such, all pictures in this post (including the cover image), were taken by yours truly. None of them are very aesthetic, so you probably already guessed as much 🙂