As I copied my old posts over, I quickly browsed each one to tag it. But, in the process, I ran across a series of posts I made when I started my freshman year. Wow, I cared a lot more about school then. I wanted to meet new people, I was excited about classes, and I was excited about working all day at the same time.

I was talking to a co-worker the other day about this very thing. She told me about how, during her freshman year, she felt very much the same way as I did at that point - sitting alone at lunch was awful, everything was new and exciting. And, like me, by the time she had been through a couple years, sitting at lunch alone was a good thing - you can do more work that way.

Wow, this mango ice cream is good... it sounds scary, though.

I can only conclude that, after two and a half years of being gone 10-12 hours/day, there is nothing fun about it. Rather than setting aside breaks in my classes to go to Mass, eat lunch, socialize, etc, I go to school, sit through three straight hours of class, then rush off to work.

But, you know, I'm enjoying this semester just as much as my first one. I've settled into a routine which seems much more like what I'll be doing after I graduate, and ultimately, that's where I want to be. I'm sure it would all be different if I was living on campus, or not working full-time. It's now much less about enjoying "the college experience" and more about "let's get this over with so I can move on and be an adult."

I could begin this post with "Well, it's been a while..." but that would only match most of the last 20 posts I've made on here. Though in this case, it would be a bit more appropriate. This time, it's been a year.

Instead, I'll focus on a change in direction.

This website started as a project for a slow weekend, but I figured, "What the heck, I'll just copy all the posts from my old blog on here." A lot of what was on my old blog was, in my estimation, filler. "I went to Cedar Point. I took a test. I did this, I did that." But what I thought was really interesting was the "... and that's how I feel about that" part. When I think about it... how great would it be to be able to go back 20 years from now and read about how I felt about going to college as an 18-year-old? I suppose that's no new concept, but I'm appreciating it more at the moment.

So, that could all be done in a neat little book hidden under my bed. Why not? Because I think it's better to share it. It gives it purpose. It keeps things positive. And more than those, it will hopefully provide a means to keep in touch with people I can't talk to in person as much as I would like to.

So, I'm going to go with that and see where it ends up.