Like pins in a map

In my high school college-counseling office there is a map with pins and flags in it signaling where all the graduates have spread to attend college. There are a lot of pins in Colorado, a few spread throughout the West coast and Midwest, and there are very few on the East Coast.

            I feel like when I came to college, the opposite happened. The pins were not where we are attending college. The pins signify where we come from.

            This past weekend, President’s day, had me thinking about all the people in this country. A lot of people in my dorm had friends from home visit them. The most interesting thing is that they are not just from these hometowns where we put our pins, but they also go to colleges around the country.

            I met someone originally from Georgia, but goes to school at the University of North Carolina. I met someone originally from Chicago, but goes to NYU.

            We are not just college students in one place. We are college students with different experiences to pull from.

            As I prepare to visit my best friend this weekend in Boise, Idaho, I’m thinking about the places I come from.

            One of my first blog posts was about being fully aware about where I am from. It is important to remember where we come from. Even though this is still true, I now have two places of reference.

            I am a Colorado native and a Boston transplant. I know the beauty of the mountains and the ease of public transportation. I know the sporadic nature of Colorado weather and the convenience of having a city at my fingertips.

            I know what it’s like to be a Catholic school survivor, a journalism student at an outstanding university, a best friend, a daughter and just an average college girl.

            Who knows where I’ll be able to reference in years to come. Perhaps someday, I’ll spin a globe and say, “I don’t just know what that place is like, I know what it’s like to live there.”

            Or I’ll look at a map full of pins and think about the girl I met from there or the boy I met who went to college there.

            Just like the experiences we are, we are the pins in a map.

For my thoughts on Justin Bieber visit my new entertainment blog The Popcorn Critic http://popcorncritic.blogspot.com/