the floor.

For every blog entry, my goal is to alternate posts between past experiences at Penn State and experiences from my freshman year

Though still personal, this post may be a little less unique than the rest from this blog will be, but if that’s the case, then hopefully more people can relate to it. Personally, I was terrified to come here. I mean, yeah, it was all I dreamed about as a kid, but when the time came – I was so unbelievably scared.

I knew that I was better off than some. My sister’s a junior here, and there were a handful of kids from my high school that came. But when it came down to it, I wouldn’t be able to survive off of just this small number. Like the ten thousand other incoming freshman, I needed to make some friends.

Everyone knows how the next part goes. Anyone and everyone is seen as a potential friend; the kid in the elevator is just as scared as you, as is the kid in the bathroom, and of course you’ve already tried to Facebook stalk your roommate. In a nutshell, it’s all simply a part of being a freshman.

I’ve always been wary to use a word like “best” to describe my own personal opinions, it kind of drives me nuts when I hear people do it. (Even though it may be hard for you to believe, it is extremely unlikely that you have the “nicest” or “cutest” or “best behaved” dog in the world.) That being said, I won’t do it here – not remotely – but I will say that my floor worked out perfectly for me.

A street sign hanging on my dorm wall

We clicked. The Mifflin Misfits we referred to ourselves a few times. In a building filled with athletes, it’s almost as if the Penn State Housing Department decided to stuff us in the top floor of Mifflin Hall. The sixth floor became the Miff Six. Silly, maybe, but it became our Greek – our own fraternity. 

The unique personalities and backgrounds of everyone is something that I wouldn’t trade. On any given night, it would be surprising if there weren’t at least nine of us eating dinner together. Sometimes there’s as many as fourteen. There’s the kids from small towns and cities, the former athletes and band stars, the singers, the dancers, the gamers, we’re all there. And it’s awesome.

I suppose everyone has their own Miff Six on their floor. It’s our own family here in State College, connected by the gene pool of Penn Staters.