College(Dallas Baptist University)

Back when I was in 8th grade my older brother Alex went off to college. At the time, when people would say "college", I would think of freedom, socializing, friends, partying, girls, fun, life, risks, adventures, memories. I was 13 years old at the time. Alex was 17 and he seemed pretty happy to be going on his own, young and free. At the same time, at that age, I knew how fast time was going. Even at such a young age I was thinking deep all the time. Soon it was going to be my turn. I would have mixed feelings. Paying my own bills, worrying about money and my future didn't sound like fun.

After I graduated the plan was to go to Montana State University of Billings with my best friend Rafael. But like I said in my past posts, my family and I ended up in Keller, Texas. Before we moved I applied for University of North Texas. They turned me down and I was upset. I had a 3.1 GPA and got a 21 on my ACT. AVERAGE scores. My mom convinced me to apply for DBU. "There's no way they're going to accept me." UNT's acceptance rate was around 70% and DBU's acceptance rate was around 45%. They accepted me and I ended up going there.

DBU is a gorgeous school. It's a private school, meaning you know the tuition is going to be crazy expensive. $24,000, which was no problem for most kids and a struggle for some kids. Altogether the enrollment at the University was around 5,000 people, meaning you would see the same people almost everyday. This wasn't like a normal college, more high-class, no parties, no stupidity. It was all about God, looking classy, corny pick-up lines, quality instagram pics, tweets about bible verses, and constantly trying to impress your peers. Everyone was forced to attend a chapel service 3 days a week, every week.

 

2 weeks before college I started getting nervous. I usually didn't get nervous about this stuff. "It's a rich kid school, they're going to judge hardcore." I thought. Nothing I could do about it. "There's always someone more weird than you, you'll be fine." I laughed to myself, I always told myself this so I could feel better.

I left for college and it was just a weird feeling. Leaving my family. I couldn't believe I completed part 1 of my life. Childhood. No more home cooking, no more getting yelled by mom, no more messing around with my siblings. I wasn't happy and I wasn't sad.

I moved into the dorm 2 days earlier because I took a class for English. 1 extra credit. At that class I met Kelsey and Jeremy, two great friends. I also knew Hannah, another girl I was good friends with. "See look, you already have three friends." I told myself.

One thing I'm very impressed and happy with myself for is that I met my true and realest friends THE FIRST WEEK at college. The first week was called "SWAT week" a week full of games and getting to know people. All first year students were split into groups of colors and got to know each other. Every day began with a rally in the gym. I HATED THIS. Everyone was forced to do this dance and play games 1st graders would enjoy. This is where I met my friends. A group of kids who obviously weren't enjoying this either. Jonathon and Bill. They were yellow group, the same color as me. We hit it off immediately and remained great friends the whole year. I also became good friends with a lot of the other introverted students. It really kinda felt like bible camp, not college though, but I changed that atmosphere up for my friends and I.

Throughout the first month I continued to just be myself 100%. I don't mean to brag but I honestly think I was one of the few people at DBU who didn't care about impressing people and being popular. And this made me popular. It didn't matter if I was attractive or not, my personality kinda rubbed off on my friends, and they felt more comfortable and free. I was awkward, but casual with making friends. Every time I would see someone sitting alone, or in their own world I would introduce myself and became good friends with them, which would then lead to me meeting their friends, and so on. I had tons of people to hangout with and enjoy time with. Everything was going great. "Rush Week" came a month later.

I don't know all about this, but what I do know is that students participate a week to try to join a frat and sorority. Tons of people wanted to do this and were extremely excited. I didn't understand what was so great about it. The day of Rush Week there were piles of people in front of the gym where it was taking place. Some of the people I knew and were great friends with and some of the people were people I didn't even try to interact with because I personally didn't think they were my type. They seemed stuck-up and like the "You're not good enough to hang with me" type of people. I took Jonathon with me. I'm not going to lie, I thought about joining, and I still can't remember why. Later on I realized the frats and sororities at DBU is nothing compared to the ones at actual colleges.

We finally got to the door and something told me maybe this was a bad idea. Sometimes you just have to realize who your "type" of people are and why people do the things they do. They have their lives and you have yours. We also found out that we had to pay $100 or something like that. No way, I didn't have that money. That 100% turned me off. "Why did you guys go there in the first place? The people who join a frat and a sorority are the people who don't know how to make friends." said Bill. I partly agreed to this, but I partly didn't. Everyone has a reason for doing what they do. Even though I'm friends with some of the frat guys and some of the sorority girls, it doesn't matter. 70% of them are out of my friends and my league. I had my friends, it didn't matter.

Remember how I said DBU was a small campus and a lot of people knew each other? Have you ever heard of the app Yik Yak before? It's an app that let's people anonymously post whatever they want. Dallas Baptist University isn't as "Holy" as you think. Tons of fake people posting the most nastiest and cruel things on that app. Some people brought it up on themselves though.

I had my friends and adventures but around November I decided that DBU was too boring. Social media was filled with the same frat/sorority stuff, posting and posing for their cliché pictures and what not. I needed fun. I needed an actual college experience. My friend Trevor and I decided to film YouTube videos for fun. This also gave us a reason to visit other colleges and places, where we made tons of other friends. They were kinda just awkward dumb social experiments. We weren't taking it seriously at all. Hitting on girls, messing with guys, meeting people, just going out and having fun.

 My friends and I sometimes went to clubs, we went to South Padre Island for spring break, different colleges, and tons more. But this was only possible because I chose to make it that way. Sure it was DBU, but I felt like the college was holding me back from making and experiencing LIFE.

I wouldn't change a thing I did in college. It wasn't my fault I was having financial issues. Because that is the only thing that made college stressful to me. Classes were a breeze of ease. Except for Old Testament. Everyone was forced to take a religious class. I passed every class with an A or B but I failed Old Testament. Hmmm.

You see, I made friends with different TYPES of people, which gave me different experiences. Quiet people, party people, adventure people, and people who just didn't care and were perfectly fine with being themselves. I was acquaintances and friends with some of the frats and sororities, but I never once hung out with them.  You're going to meet fake people everywhere. I personally didn't like DBU, I only liked my friends. Sure fake people are everywhere, but the thing about DBU is that a lot of the sorority girls and frat guys(NOT ALL OF THEM, SOME) acted like they were too good for the non-frats and non-sorority people, compared to other colleges like UNT and UTA who had nice frats and sororities, they gave everyone a chance. Everyone had their little cliques and everyone knew each other. It was annoying. It felt like a 1 year bible camp of 100 people. They were in their own world with their own people. You weren't "good" enough for them.

College was only enjoyable because of my friends. It was too high-class for me and too expensive, most people loved to judge. Thank God there were a lot of pretty girls who didn't join a sorority though, I made good friends with them. Overall it was a good experience though. It's important that you take the initiative to meet people, even if it's awkward at first, it leads to a memorable time and a long-lasting true friendship. Meeting people will change your life and I still managed to make Dallas Baptist University an actual college experience despite the disadvantages. Saying goodbye to all of my friends was sad. A lot of them mentioned how I changed the way I made them think, and that really meant a lot. "You made me realize that worrying about what people will think of you, will cause you to lose happiness and freedom, it only matter what your true friends think, you've made me much more outgoing and I thank you for that." A lot of people told me something similar to that and it made me feel good. I felt like a leader. I'm going to miss them.

It's currently late June and I still don't know if I'll be attending DBU or not. I'm hoping to transfer to Tarrant Count College because it's cheaper and I'll basically be going there for free, but I'm working for a vehicle currently at Kroger haha. The 10 hour night shift. Wish me luck.

Thanks for reading fellas and ladies.

Cheyenne Fuller

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