My First Semester of College

I decided to make my first blog post on a topic I thought was crucial for me to speak on as you may (or may not) know, I'm currently a sophomore at The University of Missouri- Kansas City, UMKC for short. Last year, pre-covid I was blessed to experience the "college life". And trust me, I thought I was prepared but I was badly mistaken.

When my move in date got closer, I began to research as many YouTube videos, blog post and Twitter threads, searching for answers on how to navigate college. I was under the impression I had it down packed but girl.

I'm not going to front like my first (and so far only) year on campus was the worse, nor am I going to act like it was the best time of my life. What I will say- that many won't is that it's hard. From friends, homesickness, money problems and college courses, as I look back on it I'm amazed that I made it through. And the weird part is- I kinda miss it????

Any who, I'll give you all a slight inside look into my first year at UMKC.

F** it, I'll get into the uncut & nitty gritty- because who gone check me boo?

So, about 99.9% of the videos and twitter threads told me how "When you first enter college, your first and closest friend will be your roommates. Guaranteed! But if youre unlucky, you might hate your roommates." I guess I was what you would call the "unlucky" ones.

You see, instead of the traditional dorms, I stayed at what was considered "off campus apartments". Based off my selection, I stayed in a 4 person suite with one bathroom a living area with a mini refrigerator, 52 inch tv and patio. My room was a very generous size, a full sized wardrobe completed with a desk, an Alexa, mini fridge and a sun roof! Yaaaaas sis, it was a top tier suite. What college student you know had a sunroof ?!

Upon moving in I realized that my two (nobody occupied the fourth room during the first semester) roommates were friends. One male, one female both sophomores who had started UMKC the year before. Now, I didn't think this was a problem at first -the friends or male part but boy was I wrong.

Literally 99.9% of my dorm suite was always filled with my two roommates, their significant others and often their friends. I would be up until 2 in the morning because all I could hear was the conversations, the yelling, the laughter, the games and etc. The constant noises would lead to me not getting enough rest for classes the next day, having a hard time doing homework assignments/studying, and often missing morning scheduled test. Even after I mustered up enough courage to talk to my two roommates to set some boundaries, 2 weeks later we were back in the same position. Again. Besides the noises, there was also a problem of resources diminishing because instead of 3 people using things like toilet paper or hot water it was now 5. Not to mention how dirty the common area would be. I hated my dorm life, and often resent it -but I can't say the same for the rest of my college experience.

Ooooook, lets get into it. Now one thing I would say is that during your first semester or even the first two weeks of every semester you will make "friends" almost any and everywhere. You sit by someone in class? Friends. Someone commits on your outfit? Friends. The girl behind you in the lunch line? Friends. So on and so on. You can probably guess these "friendships" will not last long. Because there's no foundation. You will barely remember their faces, let alone their names because a college campus is one big place.

My closest friend in college came by the name of Ashley. I met her in my Biology lab on the first day and we hit it off by making plans to go to The Country Club Plaza, a staple in Kansas City. And every since then we were peanut butter and jelly. She was a 4.0 student, who scored a B and above on everything she completed and I admired her, still do til this very day.

Im not saying I was a bad student, I occasionaly scored a C but with Ashley, she was gracious and kind enough to take me under her wing. I learned that a friend should not only be someone who tells you the tea, but someone who pushes you to do your best, someone who helps you and most of all someone who sticks around through it all.

Now, when you are living on campus, you will often be visited by the food demon. What is this you say? It's the spirit that will constantly tell you to Doordash, Uber Eats, GrubHub and Postmates everything. You want breakfast? Doordash, lunch? Doordash, Dinner? Doordash, your boo coming over? Yup, you've guessed it. Anywho, it's not bad to occasionally eat out a few times in the week, but it will get easier to just order instead of going to the dinning hall and if you can afford that, then do yo thing. BUT just know it adds up too quick! Next thing you know when you looking at that AMEX statement, you turning into Albert trying to calculate all those fee's!

I don't want this to become too long so for now, I'll leave it here. I'm not saying that your college experience will be the same, because it won't. But I am saying that you have to be prepared to embark on your own journey. Not anyone else's -no matter how good their YouTube intro is. Trust me, there will be more college stories to come.

Until Next Time.

Your Girl,

Khyra C