About..

115. Number of days since move in day. Why the cliché Master Card-ish introduction? Because a count of days seems to be the only reliable measure in an otherwise confusing sense of time for the first semester college freshman like myself. Only last week seems like the first time 50 people filed in to a overcrowded common room for the first Floor Meeting, but at the same time, it feels like it’s been years, looking over to my roommate every morning to see if my 6am alarm has woken him up.

The idea of leaving high school, people I’ve known for almost a decade, my small 2 square mile town bubble (forget the WashU bubble), was unsettling: I was really going to miss them. But now the realities of a college student (never mind a cadet) have definitely set in and I’d like to report that so far it’s been amazing. Sure some aspects can always be better, but in general I couldn’t ask for a better 115 days. And now as the first semester comes to a close, I feel a familiar sense of nostalgia-like longing to remain here frozen in time.

From that little spiel I may seem afraid of change (or a girl; no, or procrastinating in the library; yes), but I welcome and look forward to change. It is even more memories from new experiences like this first semester that leaves me excited and unafraid of what’s to come.

-Dan

PS. On a totally unrelated note, I saw a prefrosh interviewing with LTC Griggs and I realized that there are two different kinds of LTC Griggs: Interviewer Griggs and Real Griggs. Interviewer Griggs (when I met him in the summer) had led me to believe ROTC would merely be a class and a half, but what a misunderstanding that was. None of my classes have me pull fire watch in an eerie barrack. And no, the thought that friends back on campus were drunk and merry did not help.