I graduated from high school in 2006. Unlike most 17 and 18-year-olds I knew at that time, my graduation was not held in the local civic center auditorium.

 The ceremony was shorter than most, due to the fact of there only being 31 people in my graduating class.

Throughout my time in high school, I knew who I was. My name was first in alphabetical order, and had always been since the day I walked into the school I would attend for 13 years. 

Every teacher knew me by name, and I was surrounded by kids whom I had known since kindergarten—kids who, since day one, had been taught to believe the same things without question.

It was because of this I became eager to see what other viewpoints were available besides those offered in my small, conservative environment.

I finally broke free from the mold when I began my freshman year here at Appalachian State University. I chose not to follow my peers from high school—where the majority chose smaller, private colleges—but instead decided to attend a university with almost 16,000 students.
I wanted out of my comfort zone.

This university became my haven. I felt lost on the first day, yet I absolutely loved it. I was surrounded by thousands of students who did not think the way I thought—and I was challenged because of it.

I walked around the campus and was drawn to every single academic building, simply because I had never been exposed to so many opportunities. I had chosen to major in journalism, but at that point, I had no idea if that was a career path I wanted to follow. So I decided to take multiple classes in different departments, because I was overwhelmed with all the choices—I wanted to do it all.

Now, starting my junior year, I still would like to experience as much as possible, but I know it is not feasible to take class after class and major in everything offered. I know I have to pick one thing, two at the most.

I still am not 100 percent sure where I will end up.

Yet I am sure of one thing—I know coming to a large university was the best decision I could have made thus far in my life. I have been exposed to so much and I have learned more in my two years at Appalachian than I did my whole childhood and teen years combined.

I encourage those underclassmen out there—or even the juniors and seniors, if it applies—to take advantage of all this university has to offer. It is easy to complain about all the reading that needs to be done for a particular course, or to skip those 8 a.m. classes because sleeping seems so much more important. It might even be tempting to turn your back on someone you became acquainted with simply because they don’t believe the same things you do.

Yet you might find out that amidst all those boring paragraphs in your reading there is something mixed in that you might take with you the rest of your life, and that early morning class could be taught by a professor who has a contagious enthusiasm for a subject you previously thought was boring.

Or maybe even that individual—who you are so different from—could teach you something new about life simply because it is a perspective you never thought about before.

In the whole scheme of things, these four (or five, or maybe even six) years at college really do have the possibility of being the best years of your life. The first two of my college career have gone by quicker than I ever could have imagined—don’t waste those years by forgetting why you really are here, and doing everything humanly possible to gain the most from them.

In other words, get out of your comfort zone.

Anne Baker, a junior technical photography and journalism major from Asheville, is the News Editor. 

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