By Tia Benson
I still remember my first day of kindergarten—the big yellow school bus and the name tag around my neck. I was thrown into Mademoiselle Smedstad’s class headfirst. I was a wide-eyed 5-year-old, eager to make friends at her French immersion school.
My first day of college looked similar. I didn’t know what to expect walking into the big, oddly shaped building called Peabody Hall. The wide, purple-and-yellow hallways were like nothing I’d ever seen before. I approached Room 202 and didn’t know it at the time, but I would soon make lifelong friendships.
Looking back on these significant moments in my life is such a crazy concept. The two milestones are almost 15 years apart, yet they share the same qualities—facing the unknown, making new friends, not knowing what to expect.
As I sit on the porch of my senior-year house, I’m flooded with emotions and memories from the past four years—getting dinner at Western Dining Hall with 25 of my dorm friends and taking up four tables, sunbathing in Central Quad while painting coolers for fraternity formals, living in an apartment on High Street with three of my best friends and walking 20 feet to Brick Street, going abroad with the most amazing people and traveling to 15 countries.
And finally, living in St. Pauli’s Girls, that “big white house with the huge porch” on Church Street. We’ve made countless memories, from blowing up kiddie pools to tan in our yard to having one too many Tough Guys at CJ’s.
We’ve been traffic cones for Halloween and spent hours on the Side Bar patio. We’re all girls from different areas and backgrounds, but we share the same belief—we are never leaving Oxford.
I’ve carried that courage I had on the first day of kindergarten throughout my life. I’ve changed a lot since I was 5, but I always remember to make that brave little girl proud. Although I’ve made lots of memories—and even more mistakes—in my four years here, I wouldn’t change a thing because it made me who I am today.
Thank you for everything, Oxford.
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