I've come to a conclusion. Going to college and leaving home for college are two totally separate things. The big question people are asking me these days is "So are you excited?!" Excited for...a new city with thousands upon thousands of new people to meet? Yes! To not be able to yell good-night down the stairs before bed anymore? No. Excited for the amazing school spirit and atmosphere of a Big 10 school? Who wouldn't be?! To not cram into the undersized student section of bleachers at Lakeland High to cheer our T-Birds to victory on a Friday night? Its one of the things I'll miss the most. I can't wait to decorate my dorm, let my roomie and hall-mates know what they got themselves into by having me in such close quarters (I tend to dance obnoxiously, sing loud, scare and scream easy, snore, and do an annoying throat-clearing noise when I get allergies), and tackle the not-so-lovely task of studying. Not just studying for my classes, actually figuring out how to study. (Yes, that might just be an early SOS.) But I can't bear not being able to just "meet at the high school" on a Saturday night to "find something to do" and eventually end up driving the famous "Minocqua 500" a dozen times, listening to music, and crashing at the nearest friend's house after stuffing our faces with pretzels and Nutella. I hope homesickness doesn't hit me hard but...dumb parents, they made way too great a life for me here in Minocqua, I don't want to leave them! (At least I'm not leaving for Ohio Buckeye territory...my naive sophomore mind was even worse at geography and distances than it is now. A week ago I thought Duluth and Minneapolis were 7 hours apart. So yeah, even now I'm real good at that.) So back to the question: Am I excited? For college life? Oh my gosh you have no idea! To leave the only town I've ever known and not be a maximum-10-minute-drive from all the people I've grown up with? Absolutely not. Luckily, the leaving part is quick, I mean, you can really only "leave for school" once, right? Well that's a relief, because I hear this whole "college" thing is really quite a blast.