dont stop believin

i remember that first day. i walked into phelps science center auditorium....sorta apprehensive...wondering if i would be a misfit like i kindasorta feel like i am everywhere else besides church...plus my shyness doesnt help. i remember getting my room key, wondering what my roommate would be like, wondering what my dormmates would be like, wondering what my friends would be like, if i would have any at all. i wondered how the whole thing would be like. i remember walking into the dorm. i see alexy talking loudly with mrs perez, but i dont mind him, for now, hes some tall white guy with messy hair wearing a "free tibet" shirt...might be somewhat too political and such for people our age but what the heck, isnt this place supposed to be filled with extraterrestrially smart geniuses anyway?? (cept me, that was a fluke). anyways, moved into my dorm. got everything settled. said bye to nina, and she was off. so that was it. from here on out, i had to break out of my comfy little shell that ive been so nicely acquainted too. oh what? once that black subaru drives off, its andrew vs the world. andrew vs strangers. dare i make some friends!?!?
the first few hours, the answer was "oh hell no." went to lunch: oh what...by myself. nice. way to look like a loner. step one in breaking out of shell: walking into common room. but even in the common room i went right back into my little shell. talking and conversations going on all around me and all i can hear are subtle echoes from inside my own little world.
step two: lucky for me, i was dragged into the conversation. the typical "introduce yourself: who are you where ya from" conversation. great. "hi, im andrew, from LA county yeah thats about it kthx bye" back to shell. oh no, not so fast. gotta listen to everyone else introduce themselves. oh what? that white guy wearing the "free tibet" shirt, hes french. no wonder. el moussa always likes making a point about freeing tibet and all that liberal political stuff. okay now back to my shell. oh dammit man, now you're asking if i participate in any sports?? "track" kthxbye. actually it was pretty interesting, because almost everyone played a sport. not necessarily well, but they played.
step three: i was still pretty content in my shell, but oh what the heck man! our dorm was pretty damn fun on the first day. someone proposes the idea of ice cream! everyone searches up a local ice cream place. OH! theeres a friendly's about 2 miles away, lets go walk there. in my shell, i hear "ice cream" and "lets go!" i go with them. oh helll dude. soon we're talking about everything on that 2 mile walk. pretty cool stuff. a mom and her daughter (who was attending the summer program) walk by. the mom makes a remark on the closeness of our dorm already. can someone say "ewald??" then my little brain pops up a comforting thought: maybe i dont have to stay in my shell and wallow in my self pity...maybe this thing'll be fun and ill actually have some friends. hmm. that little intuition was right. whaddya know?
next day: oh what? the schedule says theres ultimate frisbee out in the yard outside of dunbar. :OO of course, instinctively, i really didnt want to go. but im sitting in a conversation between dylan and jason who wanna go. oh hey! opportunity raging at my feet! aiite ill go tooo! heck, it was kinda sorta fun!
heeeeeeeeeeeeeh. the whole thing was fun after all. my roommate, i later found out, was pretty cool. he had his flaws, but it was hella funny. hed always throw temper tantrums and he'd go inferno, but id LMFAO. he was a pretty cool guy.
and today i saw that there were an unusual amount of "i miss exeter" status updates. and i thought, gee, i think i kinda miss it too. and i felt that my posts on it didnt really do it justice....and neither did this one. theres too many events, too much emotion and too much sentiment welled up in it. i guess i cant fully draw it out in one post. but yeah.
dont stop believing.



i dont mind if you bitch at me if you feel like im being "disloyal" to whitney and my friends. honestly i dont care. then ill really see who cares and who doesnt.