Let's be real for a second: my school sucks. It's ridiculously expensive, it's on a lake so it constantly smells like vaginal infection, the professors don't make any sense, we have visitation hours, we virtually have no music program, it snows all the time, there's always an Erieite trying to break into a computer lab; the list can go on.
Let me tell you one redeemable factor about my school: the people. The friends I've met I feel like I've known for a long time. Through the 9 months I've been at school, I've encountered some pretty extraordinary people. I guess one thing about the students that surprised me the most was the diversity. I'm not necessarily talking about race or ethnicity. I'm talking about how my one best friend runs a fitness blog and my other best friend occasionally dresses up as a girl. My one friend had a baby. My other friend is from China. And somehow we all blend together. We all form a unified class; a student body. I look around at everyone at campus event and feel some weird sense of belonging somewhere. We all have different backgrounds, different stories, but we all come together to form something bigger than ourselves. We're going to graduate someday and shove off into the real world, but we'll all say "We're Gannon University's Class of 2016".
I guess this is coming from a feeling of alienation from my high school class. I had friends, but I never fit exactly into one group. I tried too hard for people to like me. Now, I'm in an area where I can be myself, and there are hundreds of people like me. It's something unfamiliar and comforting all at the same time.
The motto of my school is "Believe in the Possibilities". I interpret it as there's always the possibility that there's going to be a snowstorm in April, or an Erieite will break into the library again, or your RA busts you after visitation hours, but as long as you have people that understand you, that you can laugh with, or bitch with, you are always going to be just fine.
