Top 10: #10 - BEST DECISIONS

[siren52684]

life has been pretty snazzy as of late. i've managed to snag a few free nights away from work to go out drinking with my favorite local girls (andrea & emboz), which is a good time, every time. work has been kind to me in terms of self esteem (they love me there. i'm totally serious.) and money. and i went on the first "date" i've really been excited about in two years the other night with the boy i've been talking about for the last few weeks. at least it felt "date-like" to him, and i could not agree more.

obviously this last bit had put me through the goddamn roof and i am on cloud fucking nine.
all i need is for a job to come through and i...will be unable to speak for happiness.

TOP TEN DECISIONS I MADE IN COLLEGE

• Going to U of I. this one is kind of a no-brainer, but it wasn't at the time. i wanted to go to miami of ohio, or NYU or somewhere the hell out of illinois. but i chose U of I, and that was a genius move on my part. i love the town. i love the campus. i love the classes and the professors and the people and everything. i will talk that school up until i have no voice.
  
• Joining the Equestrian Team. another no-brainer. most of my college search depended on what schools had IHSA teams that i could ride for, and then whether or not i could feasibly apply and get accepted there. the girls i met on the eq. team are seriously some of the best girls i've ever met in my whole life, and the weekends i've spent with them, driving to remote parts of indiana, through snowstorms and extreme cold, have been amazing. i love these girls like crazy.
  
• Not Joining a Sorority. i know, i know, i've said that i wished i had pledged a house. and part of me really wishes i had done so. the problem there would have been that i wasn't mentally prepared to do such a thing until my senior year, which would've been a little pointless. however, not joining forced me to figure things out for myself, without having a huge support group to run to at all times for everything. i had to make my own social events and meet people the old fashioned way (on facebook and in bars), and i like to think i did alright for myself.
  
• Working While At School. i got a job my sophomore year, as a result of things at medieval times going south. i hadn't worked at all the summer prior to that school year, and was in desperate need of bank. working at za's/delights was awesome. delights was cool because i worked in the union, and therefore got to learn about all the cool shit that went on in the union. i'd bribe my friends to visit me at work with free food and it was awesome. at za's, it was never boring, and on the rare nights it was boring, we'd buy a case of beer, or see how long andy could stand being in the freezer or something. AND, i got so much free food it would blow your mind.
  
• Liver Abuse. i was a judgmental little kid in high school - to the point where i pretty much decided that anyone who drank was BAD AND WRONG. and then i got to college and held a very similar point of view for...too long. maybe i was afraid of what i would do "under the influence." maybe i was afraid that more poor uneducated drunk self would wander into traffic and die, or get attacked by some drunk fratty and so on and so forth. but booze...was a good idea. it put me in some HILARIOUS memorable situations and it facilitated some of the best moments of college.
  
• Being a SpeechCom Major. i wanted to be a theatere major. i had a number of schools offering me theatre scholarships, but i went to illinois because...it was awesome. anyway, i started as a prejournalism major and i took a speechcom class because it covered a gened and sounded fairly easy. i had such a good time in that class that i looked into other classes within the major. my SECOND speechcom class was the oral interpretation of literature, which is pretty much what i did in high school speech team, only for a grade. the major was full of amazing classmates, passionate teachers, and the most fun educational experience i could ahve ever hoped for. i loved my major. good call, me.
  
• Dating the People I Dated. there are a gajillion analogies out there for dating and what it's supposed to symbolize. i like to think of the ones that didn't work out as opportunities to grow and learn and make distinctions in the future about what does and does not work. things i have learned from boys include: distance makes the heart grow fonder, but it sucks; dating an uberconservative is not a good idea; never ever date a boy who does not treat his mother like a queen; don't get involved with coworkers and never get involved with someone who is dumber than i am.
  
• Becoming Sexually Active. i was originally one of those people who thought i would wait until marriage and have exactly one partner and blahblahblah. and then, i realized that wasn't what i wanted. i wanted variety. i wanted to see what was out there and how it worked and learn how to react in different situations. in the beginning of my sophomore year, in me personality psychology class, they asked us how many partners we anticipated having. i said "eight" - and was all purse as the driven snow at the time. and while i don't have any regrets, and i do have some awkward hindsight, i'm glad i've done what i've done.
  
• Living in the Condo. college is the time where idiot high school children learn how to grow up and fend for themselves. i lived in the dorm for my first two years, and aside from a lack of room service, it was very similar to living in a hotel. or maybe a hostel, now that i think of the bathroom situation. living in my condo was a whole new ballgame. there were bills to pay and utilities to keep up and dishes to wash and stupid things like hand soap and paper towels and swiffers to purchase. living there taught me about how i want to keep my own house and what i'll require in order to be happy.
  
• The Friends I Surrounded Myself With. at this exact moment, i have 623 facebook friends. 382 of them are from U of I, and i am happy to say that i actually KNOW PERSONALLY 306 of them. this is kind if indicative of the fact that i knew SHITTONS of people in champaign, and they were all more or less awesome. the people i hung out with at school are honestly some of the best people i've ever met in my life, and i'm fucking thrilled to know them.