Ally Mckeel: freshman, commuter –  Note: I just wanted to include some of this first part, because while it isn’t part of her story exactly it seems important to who she is.

“What’s my story? What’s my…story?! What does that mean, I don’t know… I don’t know, my life’s been so boring I don’t have anything like… (long silence)

This is very difficult, I wish you didn’t ask me. *laughs* I DON’T HAVE A STORY *groans* Can you feel how triggered I am?

I’m trying to think of what’s happened in this year – Trump was elected, triggered – I, what did I do this year? I DON’T knooooowww. I don’t have anything, I don’t know what I did this year. I don’t have a life story, I don’t have any defining moments.”

Her Story:

“I applied to college, that was a STRUGGLE… this time last year, what was I doing, senior year? Probably sitting at home alone cuz Mace had Frank? And I had my friends at OSU, which is nobody. Anyways I applied to OSU, and I never really had a plan to go anywhere else – you know what I mean? And it was just supposed to be like ‘smooth transition’ and then I applied but it wasn’t smooth at all to like, get into here and now that I’m here it’s pretty much exactly like last year [when I took classes here at OSU through my high school]. Everything’s the same because I still live at home and I still have the same amount of friends. I haven’t made any new friends, or made connections because I have work now – for tuition – because it was free last year, but now it’s not – so that’s one change: now I’m paying for all of this…and now I work and…and…and now I work.

My life’s been uneventful, I feel like all the progress I made last year…went back. So I guess I’m kind of back where I was already. But like it’s irrelevant and like I don’t know, I mean, I guess I got a boyfriend…ish.

It’s always ish, I’m always halfway, you know what I mean? I don’t know, the year hasn’t really changed anything, at the end of the day – still the same – except I have a job. I’m not the person to be asking about this stuff. Can you feel how triggered I am?”

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My first week went well. I did have to drop a class and replace it with another one because it was scary and sad (it was on the Holocaust). Other than that I like my schedule a lot, Latin is going to be a really hard class and I was a little worried at the beginning of the semester, but it seems do-able. My schedule has long chunks of time between my classes, which might be irritating to some people because it means I start early and end late, but it gives me time to work on things at a time that isn’t like 10 o’clock at night.

I was a little nervous about being so close to home (I can practically walk to my house), and because I have already been on the OSU campus for almost all of my time in high school. I was worried it was going to seem too much like exactly the same thing I’ve been doing, but it is so different to be living on campus and I feel a lot better about it now.

I am excited to be in Humanities Scholars, but I don’t think I completely grasp what it means yet – to be in Humanities Scholars. I think I have time to figure it out though, since it’s still only the second week.

So overall the first week went pretty good, no major hiccups and I am excited for the rest of the semester.