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"I&amp;#039;m in college.  Sometimes it takes saying that to myself a few times for me to actually believe it! I never thought I would be here at Hampton University, all the way in Hampton, Virginia. Especially during that 15 hour car ride, I thought I&amp;#039;d never get here!  No, but seriously, I really can&amp;#039;t believe that I&amp;#039;m here because I NEVER thought I would go out of state for school. My mom always wanted me to stay in Illinois to be close to my family. However, one magical day she told me that I could apply to my dream school, Hampton University. The fact that she even let me apply was a miracle in itself, so I just knew I had to take this opportunity! After I visited twice, toured this beautiful campus (which just happens to be right on the waterfront) and met the students, I knew this was the school for me, it just felt like...home. =)  Even though I miss hugging my parents everyday and busting into my little brother&amp;#039;s room just to annoy him, I&amp;#039;m really happy that I chose Hampton. I just moved in 2 weeks ago and I&amp;#039;m already having so much fun. The freshman and upperclassman Student Leaders got here a week before classes started for NS O (New Student Orientation) week. Hampton definitely kept us busy with orientation meetings  and activities every single day. We got assigned our big brothers and sisters, learned our class songs and met with the professors over our majors, etc. When we got down time, we were able to have fun just hanging out with friends in the student center drinking smoothies from Planet Smoothie and dancing at the block parties on the weekends. At the end of the week we got officially inducted to Hampton University in a really nice ceremony where the girls wore white dresses and the boys wore black suits and we listened to what it really meant to be a Hampton Woman/Man and took the Hampton Oath.    There will many things I&amp;#039;ll have to get used to, like sharing a room for the first time, (I love my roommate by the way!), eating caf food for breakfast, lunch AND dinner, and getting dressed up every time we have an event in Ogden hall. However all of those things are worth being here and living out this wonderful experience. I&amp;#039;ve already made so many new friends from all over the country, learned some new things and even had a few embarrassing moments like almost falling in my heels on the way back to my dorm after and Ogden event and handing the lady in the caf my Hello Kitty debit card instead of my student ID..oops!  These past few days have been amazing and its only a preview of all the good times to come. What makes it even better is that all you Seventeen readers get to experience this with me! I&amp;#039;m sooo excited and I hope that you all are too! So welcome to my little &amp;quot;Home By The Sea!&amp;quot;  Love,  Paige    "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a12241/paige-reality-just-set-in/>