My first year, moving in was one of the most terrifying things I had ever contemplated up to that point in my little 18-year old life. I was moving in 3 days before my roommate Ashley was due to arrive, and my stomach bottomed out as I was walking into Slichter for the first time when the thought crossed my mind that no one in the entire city of Madison knew my name. NO ONE knew my NAME. I was about to be utterly alone, more alone than I had ever been in my life. When I get nervous I talk a lot and can't eat food, and you can believe I started chattering up a storm as I moved everything in to room 410 with the whole Strommen family in tow (this was the first time they had ever dropped a kid off at college, they didn't know better. Let's forgive them).
Then we all nervously went to Qdoba, and I wanted desperately for my family to leave and to stay at the same time. No eating happened on my part. Everything was going fast and slow at the same time. It was too hot. It was too cold. Moreover, it was frustrating. Inevitably, with bunch of send-off hugs, I was left alone in my room. In Madison. Alone. Key word? ALONE. I remember sitting down at my new desk, opening up Facebook, and then thinking "now what?"
Well, my "now what" came in the form of a calendar shoved under my door that said "Badger Buddy Dinner - 7pm" Well HALLELUJAH! The Badger Buddies were college students who helped all us awkward freshmen move in, and when I saw that on the calendar I thought "How nice! They know that we're probably all alone and they're going to eat dinner with us! Hooray!" Grinningly, I went to the Badger Buddy dinner (alone, of course. ALONE) and realized in a matter of seconds that I was grossly, grossly wrong about this Badger Buddy thing. This was not a dinner with Badger Buddies, it was a dinner for the Badger Buddies. The girl behind me in line - Allison was her name, I will never forget that - asked what I was studying. "English!" I overenthusiastically decried. "Cool," nodded Allison. "Were you a Badger Buddy last year, too?" My mouth gaped open to respond when I was cut off by the girl in charge saying, "Thanks for helping out guys! You're a great bunch of Badger Buddies. Thanks so much for helping everybody move in today, and for all your hard work. We've got plenty of pizza, so eat up!"
Oops. And if that wasn't enough to tip me off, the fact that every single person in the place was wearing a blazing red "Badger Buddy" shirt should have. It's okay, this story has a happy ending. I managed to find some other freshmen who had made the same mistake, so Drew, myself, and some guy I don't remember (but used to see all over campus) ended up walking out to picnic point, eating s'mores, catching a great view of the Capitol at night, and starting to fall in love with Madison.
Sophomore year move in was less eventful, but still involved picnic point. All the anxiety and awkwardness of freshman year was finally over and it was exciting to see all the old familiar faces, shriek about summer break, and unloft/loft/unloft the bunks a million times. It was still interesting because I had a new roommate Jennifer that I was getting to know, but it was largely comfortable. Safe. Routine.
The evening I moved in last year, some friends from Chapel had planned to have a campfire at picnic point. The sky was spattered with ominous black clouds but we were all so happy to be together again that it didn't really matter - until we almost blew off the isthmus in the deluge and near-tornado that followed. As we started running back to the car, soaked to the bone and laughing our heads off, I just thought "This is so... college. This is so great!" This was home; this was where I was supposed to be.
Now I'm in Minnesota. There were elements of freshman awkwardness moving in this year, realizing that people here didn't know me and I would be regressing, going back through a couple months of "Where are from? What's your major?"It was nice to look back and see that in two years, I went from having not a single person in Madison know my name to having a truly spectacular group of friends there. That gives me hope as I keep settling in here at MLC.
There were some elements of sophomore confidence moving in this year, too. For the first time I was living with someone I knew previously - hooray for Melissa! - and that was a great relief. Regardless, there was no picnic point involved in move-in this year, which makes my heart hurt. Literally. Madison is great and I miss it with such fervor, I can't really find accurate words for it. I miss evening strolls along Lakeshore path with the jaunty echoes of the Wisconsin band's practice melding into the cricket chirps and breeze. I miss Piccolo Pete, the Starbucks on state, the walk to Chapel, riding my bike down Charter, the 80, Vespers, the smell of the stacks, the excitement of the first day in a huge lecture hall... but most of all, I miss the people. Nothing will ever replace the people of Madison in my heart.
So normally on August 30th I would be starry-eyed at picnic point, but I guess I'll get started on my homework now...
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us"
- Romans 8:37
