Saturday morning we headed up to Fort Collins, home to the Colorado State Rams. My old stomping grounds in 1994, 1995, and 1996. In case you are wondering why I chose to go to Colorado State the story goes like this: I was in a really bad place in life. I hated that I was going to Mesa Community College. Jeremy and I had broken up and he was going to ASU. I was living at home and just down. I went to the bookstore one day and bought this HUGE book of colleges. I started flipping through it and highlighting all the places that I had been as a kid. Some of the places included Texas, Utah, Colorado and California. I then called all of the places I thought it would be fun to live and had them send me applications (No Internet at the time!) One day I received a letter of acceptance from Colorado State University in Fort Collins Colorado. I had never been to Fort Collins nor did I know a single person there. Since it was the first place that accepted me, I decided I was gonna go...for 1 semester. My Dad came home from work one night and ever so calmly I asked him, "Hey Dad, what are you doing in January?" "Can you drive me to Colorado, I'm gonna go to school there." Without hesitation he said he would take me, he must have know how down I was! So one day in January 1994, my Mom and Dad drove me to Fort Collins Colorado, dropped me off and went home. My Mom told me later she cried the whole way home thinking that if someone were to kidnap me no one would even know I was gone cause no one even knew I was there. I didn't know a single sole! Remember, this was before cell phones so phone calls home only happened on Sunday's. Fast forward 14 years...
As we drove into town I was getting excited but nothing looked familiar. My little college town was now HUGE. As we passed a Super Target, JoAnn Fabrics, and Michaels I began to feel a bit sad that none of it looked as how I remembered. Since we had no idea where we were going we just kept driving toward the mountains. As we drove Jeremy kept asking, "Does any of this look familiar?" None of it did. None of the streets rang a bell, none of the gas stations jogged a memory, NOTHING! Jeremy was getting a bit irritated with me cause we had tickets to the CSU/UNLV football game and we were running a little late. Eventually we ran into a street called College and whatta ya know...There was MY college! I remembered where the bookstore was so we ran in and grabbed some CSU shirts to wear to the big game. We then headed over to The Pickle Barrel for a Funky Punky sandwich. I'm pretty sure this cute little sandwich shop is where I began the process of gaining the Freshman 15 my first year away from home.
After a quick lunch we headed to the stadium to watch the football game. As we pulled up to the stadium I thought Jeremy was gonna die. The CSU football stadium is much like that of the Mountain View Toro stadium except that you park in a grass field. He couldn't believe that the stadium was so small for a college football team. We watched the game and laughed at the announcer and vinyl signs taped to the stadium fence. Since the CSU Rams were killing UNLV, we left and headed back to the campus so I could look around. Something to note in all this is that the year after I graduated, the Poudre Dam broke and flooded the city of Fort Collins. Because of this, much of the school had to be rebuilt. I felt bad that not much of it looked as I had remembered.
We stopped by my old dorm room and even my apartment. The city has grown so so much, it was way different then I thought it would be but those two places still looked the same. It was so fun being back in Fort Collins. It has been 14 years since I graduated but much of what I did and learned there is still fresh in my mind. I miss lots about being in college but most of it I am happy to leave behind. Jeremy was a good sport as I showed him all the places I used to hang out. I loved going to Colorado State and feel so lucky that my parents gave me the opportunity to go away to college. Oh and by the way...that one semester away turned into the best 2 1/2 years of my life!
Corbet Hall F302 is where I spent my first year away from home. I loved living there and met many great friends while there.
After Corbett Hall I moved into this super nice apartment with 3 of my friends from the dorm. It was called Rams Village West. We each had our own room but shared a double bathroom. I looooved living here because these apartments were fairly new which meant they were really clean.
As we were driving around the campus I heard this really loud noise that sounded waaaaay too familiar. I look over and see the train that comes right through the campus.
It is a huge, long train and it blows it's horn for about 30 minutes straight to warn you that it has arrived. This train would make you late for class if you didn't time your walk just right.
Stay tuned for tomorrows post about my roommates wedding...I promise you won't wanna miss it!
