College Life

Hello there, and welcome to my page!

[theunconventionalstudent]

About The Owner

Hello there! As the owner of this blog, I figured that the most appropriate task would be for you all to get to know me. So, here it goes:

Basic Info:

My name is Aly, and I am twenty years old, soon to be twenty one. I am a second year student in college, and I hope to go on to graduate school! Cats are my favorite animal and chocolate ice cream is the superior flavor of ice cream!

Interests: Reading, writing, going to the beach, exploring new movies, creating Pinterest boards, and vlogging are some of the things that interest me. I love traveling and aspire to do more of it in the future.

Favorite Films: I love The Lord of the Rings & The Hobbits films, the Conjuring and Insidious, and a plethora of 2000s romcoms that I will get into one day. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is also a fantastic movie and I would completely recommend it to any and everyone that I meet. The Edge of Seventeen, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Everything Everything are just a few of the films that altered my teenage life....But I'll stop here, as I can go on and on about every film that I love.

Most Enjoyed Artists: I like to think that I am a lover of most music genres, and I think that it reflects in my music taste. I love listening to boa, Abba, the cranberries, sza, the Sundays, Stevie Nicks, Coldplay, Amy Winehouse, Debbi Dawson, xg, and willow Smith. Similarly to the films section, I can go on and on about my favorite musical artists, but I think you get the point.

What I Hope to Gain From This Blog:

Overall, I aspire to create a community of people who find comfort in my posts, and find that they are not alone in the discussions that we are sometimes too afraid or ashamed to have.

[theunconventionalstudent]

While we are in the season of college dorm move-ins, what’s your happiest/worst move-in memory?

[isabelrse]

the bbes and banes of my life

[theunconventionalstudent]

The Twenty Year Old Freshmen. Entry 1.

In the land of College (Uni for my international students), the typical age in which we enter higher level academia is eighteen. Of course, this is subject to change for each individual. Maybe you are someone who needed to take a couple years off after High School in order to (re)discover who you are as a person. Maybe you were someone who had no clue what degree you wanted. Perhaps you have a birthday late in the year that puts you a few months older than your peers. No matter the situation or reasoning, they are all unique to the individual.

In my case, I took a year off after High school so that I could support my family once my sister fell sick. It was the only thing that felt like the right choice. I love my family, so even though attending College was my absolute dream, I put it on the back burner. It was a hard decision to make, but I didn't regret it. Only a year later did the realization of what I had given up settle in, after I moved into my freshman dorm.

I was nineteen when I moved in, and twenty a month into my first school year. Now, when you think about it, this doesn't seem like such a big deal when there's typically only a two (sometimes three) year age gap between you and the people that live in your building. In reality, I realized that the physical gap may not be wide, but the emotional gap was. I was old. I saw it in the faces of those who found out my age, and I heard it in their voices when they would ask how I was even allowed to stay in the building at my age.

I was a first year student just like the rest of them, but I wasn't like the rest of them. I felt like I was behind when I'd meet people who were my age or younger yet a grade or two above me. This mentality of being behind has been hard to shake, but I know that I am not the only one. I hope that as I share my stories and experiences, more people who are like me feel less alone.