Sitting in the hotel in Columbus Sunday (move-in day) morning this panic overwhelmed me.  Suddenly I didn’t want to do it.  I had seen how hard it was for my parents (and me) to move and I didn’t know if I was strong enough to do it on my own.  As much as I hated West Virginia I was scared to take this leap.  Being the kind of person who bottles everything up I didn’t tell anyone.  I just took a few deep breaths and kept moving, knowing the feeling would pass.

We went through check-in procedures and I walked up to my room.  I didn’t give it much though; instead I just tried to unpack all my stuff.  My family soon left and I was glad to see them go.  Now I was actually on my own.  I sat on my bare floor once again surrounded by boxes and wondered where to begin.  The panic had disappeared and a rational calm settled over me.  The first thing I did was to unpack my pictures.  Even though I was now 4 years older it still helped me to feel at home.  I then began the long process of unpacking my stuff.

 After a few hours I had most of my stuff in its place and met some girls from the floor.  They all seemed really friendly and my roommate was awesome.  We got along really well.  I had so much to do the first week after we moved in.  Classes started Wednesday so I had to figure out which building they were in, buy my books for the courses, plus I was determined to get a job.  I applied for two different ones and got them both.  I would be working at the Biological Sciences and Pharmacy Library during the week and on Sundays I would be coaching gymnastics.  The coaching job was only for three hours a week but I figured it was enough to keep me interested in the sport.

 My first day at the library was interesting.  It was during a football game so the place was dead. The people I worked with were awesome though so I was entertained.  After work my roommate and I went a party one of her friends was having.  It was interesting to meet all these people she went to high school with.
 

Stephanie and I were both in the same situation.  We were anxious to get out of the town we lived in and didn’t really miss it that much.  I was curious to see how the other kids from Fairmont were doing in this big, new world.  I actually ran into one of the girls I went to high school with at the bookstore.  Jennifer looked really scared.  As mean as it is to say, it made me feel good that she was scared.  She was one of the girls who knew everyone in high school and here she was thrust into this strange world and she didn’t know what to do.  I emailed her a few times and we talked about the differences between Fairmont and Columbus, but we never hung out.  I adjusted really quickly to the new situation, which I’m assuming is because I had recently moved from Houston.

I loved being back in the big city.  I didn’t realize how much I missed seeing a skyline from a distance.  Soon after moving to Columbus I went to City Center (a gigantic shopping mall.)  It was exciting.  In Fairmont the idea of a mall is a dozen stores connected by a walkway.  But City Center had three stories, escalators, and tons of stores.  It was nice just to be able to walk down the corridor and be surrounded by shops.  A bunch of girls from my floor went to see a movie one night and I decided to go with them.  It was my first time going to the Lenox and I fell in love.  It had stadium seating, an excellent sound system, and move than six screens.  In Fairmont the movies never sold out.  I would often go see shows and there would be maybe 20 people in the theatre with me.  There’s something comforting about sharing a new experience with a hundred strangers.

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