Finding a Place

Hello readers (if you're out there)!

I have been painstakingly waiting to share some rather exciting news with you all: I have been accepted as a transfer student to The Ohio State University! This is quite a drastic change from what I'm used to. To illustrate my point, Urbana University, my former institution, had approximately 1,200 students while OSU (Go Bucks!) has approximately 55,000. Yep, that's a lot of people. So naturally while I was on campus this past Monday for Transfer Orientation (my third college orientation), I spent a lot of time learning about my options and beginning to find a place at my new home away from home.

Of course, having a decided major has been extremely helpful in finding a place for myself in the academic world. I'm a Psychology major with an intention of going to law school. However, I did get to spend some time with other psych people such as myself. One of the girls I was talking to said her dad told her to major in something she could make money in and minor in something you love. Wise words I suppose, but as I was talking with her I realized that psychology is my one academic love. I can rant on and on about how sleep patterns can affect a persons behavior and productivity or how cool neurotransmitters or conditional learning are, I've done experiments on my younger sister with operant conditioning, and I fully intend to conduct an undergraduate research project. And THEN, as I talked with her more I realized that I WAS doing what she was doing after all. Law is my "major" and psychology is my "minor." Psychology is my passion but law is my money-maker. Not to say I don't love law because I do. Especially anything to do with the Constitution. I also love the idea of being a lawyer. And, admittedly, I like to argue. I would probably rock a debate team.

My problem, I suppose, lies in the numerous activities available to me on campus. Over 1,000 student organizations to be a part of and I'm totally ready to load my plate with all of the goodies like it was my favorite Chinese buffet. However, I know if I do that I will be completely overloaded, especially since Garrett is going to college in the same area. Debate team, mock trial, student government, the student newspaper, religious clubs, book clubs, service clubs, psychology clubs, and Quidditch all sound like fun options, but how do I choose. I suppose I'll find out!

Anyway, Ohio State is so big, I guess my anxiety lets me think I couldn't possibly find my niche, but I think that's why I will be able to find (what my sister calls) my nerd posse. There will be such a diverse group of people that there is no doubt I will find some people who don't mind all of my big words or my quoting Shakespeare at 9 in the morning. Maybe even a couple people who will quote Shakespeare right back!