reflections: university at albany edition

Warning: I'm listening to Les Mis while I write this, so if my tone seems overly tragic and pre-French revolutionary-esque, that's why.

I also took 5 years to graduate, but not because I did a school related program teaching me how to be an entrepreneur, but because I left the first University I attended and took a year off to wallow in self pity. As a result I think my feelings on my alma mater are different than yours for a number of reasons--one being U of R was your first choice (and for the sake of clarification, University OF Rochester is a fancy private school whereas University AT Albany is just one campus in the SUNY system and is inherently less impressive than U of R) while University at Albany was a last resort and at the time I thought going to college in the same city I was born and raised was the ultimate failure. So I didn't really have high hopes for my experience at UAlbany. While you went to school whose campus was an arboretum, I went to school on a concrete rectangle.

Maybe because I enrolled expecting to hate it, the fact that it wasn't terrible made it seem amazing. I will admit that there are some problems with the curriculum and as a public university that is facing unprecedented budget cuts, it's not the happiest place on Earth. Despite all of my own baggage and the school's short comings, I was really happy there. And the more I think about it, the more I realize how lucky I was. I wouldn't say I'm full of school pride (as I didn't attend a single UAlbany sporting event in my four years there), I am incredibly proud of my degree. Mainly because every time I think about it I remember the amazing professors I had and the friends I made. And while I couldn't be happier that I will never have to take another gen ed class or have to cram in time to study for a Latin test, I will miss skipping class and hanging out in the writing center all day, and that giddy feeling I would get everyday on my way to my Detective Fiction classes.