Around this time last year I had just been accepted to
Lewis and Clark, and now I have just finished my first semester. It’s an
incredible feeling. I was living in an entirely different world back then. Now,
I’m sitting in the Portland International Airport and thinking how different my
life is now than it was when I arrived for the first time. That backpacking
trip to the Wallowa Mountains I wrote about in my first blog entry. Moving into
my new home with my best friend Sully. Meeting my friends Sarah from Belgium
and Kat from Napa, California and Felicia from Costa Rica and so many others.
Starting college classes for the first time. It all seems so far away even
though it was only a few months ago.
It all comes down to the people you meet.
Summary of the semester: Julie and Rena and I being
really excited about Portland weather and food carts! My whole floor trying to
take a “selfie”! General laughter and creepiness from Sarah and Robert!
That, and comparing the Bible to Greek tragedy to Freud
to modern British literature while writing poetry about antique shops or the
color blue and learning how to graph the trajectory of light through the
timeline of the expanding universe. That’s Lewis and Clark, at least for me.
I am so glad I chose to come here, out of all my other
choices. It was a tough decision trying to narrow it down at the end of senior
year, but ultimately, I’m more than satisfied. My words of wisdom to all you
prospective students is as follows:
You might not see sparks fly the first time you visit a
school. And that’s okay. It’s okay if you visit all the schools on your list
and don’t fall head over heels with a single one. I visited all of the schools
I was thinking of going to (multiple times!) and I still had no idea where I
should go. Yes, trying to find the best one is hard, but the guidebooks and
websites and all the hype tells you that there’s a “dream school” out there
that’s “perfect” and you’ll know it when you see it. That’s simply not true for everyone.
There was never a moment where I was dead sure Lewis and Clark was going to be
the right choice until I was actually here, attending classes and making
friends and living life. You just have to make the decision and everything will
turn out just fine.
How did I make my decision? Well, I am super indecisive, so I was going back and
forth between Lewis and Clark and Mills College for about a month. Then, I was considering Lewis
and Clark and University of Puget Sound for another month. Then, Lewis and Clark and UC Berkeley.
Finally, my family and friends made me realize that Lewis and Clark was the
“common denominator,” so to speak. So I went here, and I have absolutely no
regrets. I have been so happy here for the last four months
That being said, it was no cakewalk, finals were tough
(especially astronomy), and I am so ridiculously excited to get home to
California! There’s apparently snow at my house right now. Haha, I know… snow
in California? What? Well, California is more than just Hollywood and beaches,
you know. Give me mountains any day.
Enough nostalgia. Enough pontification on home and life
and stuff. Let’s get to the story-telling part. As a break from finals, about
ten people from my dorm went to go see The Hobbit!! It was so, so good. I was
on the edge of my seat shrieking or laughing the whole time. The movie started
at 10:40pm downtown and was about three hours long, so we had to sprint to
catch the last bus of the evening back to school. It was so awesome! I mean,
getting out of the movie into the winter air and running full-out through the
empty city like Smaug the dragon was spitting fire behind us… what more could
we want? We made it to the bus stop in time so we didn’t even have to pay for a
taxi.
Well, I hope you all had good semesters of your own. I
sure did. Still can’t believe I just finished my first semester of college. I
feel pretty accomplished. Hopefully all of you who applied Early Action got
accepted! Can’t wait to see you on campus next year once you make your
decision.
Feel free to email me any questions at jessicakostka@lclark.edu. Happy
holidays! I’ll be back in a month or so.
Jessica