college :: year V

year 5 // senior year (osu)

[[ pirate party. sam/colleen/tiff. tiff at harrisons for hunters birthday. halloween. johni. group. colleens birthday. superhero party group. tiffany. my mustache is better than yours. fran. tiffs bday / vampire party ]]

Our last year was bittersweet (for me anyway). I was excited to be able to take a break from school, but at the same time I knew that big changes were up ahead and I was not necessarily ready for them yet. I also knew that the closer we came to the end of the school year, the harder it would be to see each other regularly as everyone started moving away. We had a TON, I mean a TON of theme parties this year and started some new traditions, all the while struggling with Packaging Design and our Senior Thesis projects.  I feel like we had so much fun this year because it went by super fast and everyone got really close. This is my other favorite year of college. (the first & the last).

______________________________________________________________

[[ senior thesis show in pdx. graduation. ]]

I have to briefly mention our show and graduation (more on this later??)

... I didn't feel like I could breathe until both of our Senior Thesis Shows in Corvallis and Portland were done. Then it was graduation, which was like a whirlwind. I feel like I hardly got any pictures because it felt so sudden, and everyone was so exhausted from our show in Portland the night before. But I will say, walking up to the stage in front of all of those people and being handed a college diploma with MY name inside of it was pretty surreal. I of course opened it up right away to make sure, and then gave Andrea Marks (one of our professors) a big hug before walking out forever. ......And that was college.

P.S. I had fun looking back through hundreds, maybe thousands of old pictures and making these... The further away I get from them the more entertaining they will be to revisit I am sure.

fin

college :: year IV

year 4 // junior year (osu)

[[ brad (i hate it when people do that!). NKF. sanchos. johni. nerds. meguenther. tailgaters. gd group. molly. pat. francisco. tiffs birthday. ]]

This was the year that the real design work started, so it is not surprising that I spent my time primarily with other people in the program. Fall and Winter went by fairly uneventfully, I was mostly hanging out with Brad and Pats friends. With spring came Collaborative Processes class, which was absolute hell and absolutely amazing (looking back) at the same time. I got really close with my magazine group, and although people seemed to assume that me and Tiffany had previously been the best of friends, this was when it started actually becoming true. I went out in town for her 21st birthday, and from then on we were always together. :) I also met some other people I now call my best friends. Overall Junior year academically was a pain in the ass, but yielded some sweet rewards and many drunken adventures (I was now 21 after all...). 

P.S. Is this more like it Ms. Williams? Do I finally look like myself? ...Well for the most part, I had not ditched the straighter quite yet.

college :: year III

year III // sophomore (osu)

[[ winter hat. megan/catie. brad. jia. tony. brad/pat. ariel. brad/alia/pat. kitchen party. nina/amy. vikings. amy/pat. ]]

I made the move to Corvallis to live with Pat (somewhat reluctantly) and study graphic design (excitedly). It turned out to be really nice living together, even though I was worried about it initially. Much better than a long distance relationship, yuck. I did not really know that many people in Corvallis though at the time I moved. Most of my friends were at UO or in Portland so this was the year I met and started hanging out with a ton of pats friends. Notably, me, Pat and Brad were together all the time in the Spring and Summer, but there were also a lot of kids from Estacada, and Keizer in my life now. This is the year I really met (though i had been introduced to her before) and started hanging out with Johni.

college :: year II

year II // sophomore (sou)

[[ summer night. paul-o-ween. <3. laura/nicole. champagne crew at crater lake. brittany/megan. my roomates. amy. pat visiting me in ashland. dressup. the girls. my tiny tiny room. ]]

Sophomore year everything started changing... In the summer after Freshmen year ('05) I went on my first date with Pat and from then on we were together as much as possible. We were however battling with long distance this entire year, and it was very difficult at times, I will not lie about that. I moved out of the dorms into a tiny horrible apartment in a complex called 'The Ashlanders'. my room was large enough to fit my bed, and that was pretty much it. I started out living with two other girls, and ended up living with Dusty and Paul, two guys who were several years older than me (but a lot of fun to live with!) Clearly my parents had no idea what was going on with my life. The beginning of the year was awesome, but as it went on I realized that I could not stay happy being so far away from Pat, and thus ends my schooling at Southern Oregon University.

college :: year I

Hayden (Pats little) started college this week. I can't believe this is my second year out of school, it still feels more foreign not to be fighting swarms of students to get to class on time, pulling all nighters to complete design projects, and partying every chance we got with friends.

I decided to pull up some super old and not so old pictures to catalogue my college experience this week and next, starting from the very beginning...........
Ready? Here we go...

year I // freshmen (sou)

[[ amy/brad. kori/alena. kara. dusty webb. drinkathon. pink prom w laura/paul. dorm room. steven. anything but clothes goes. trip home. halloween w natalie/laura/keith. the girls. ]]

Freshmen year was spent living in the dorms in Ashland, Oregon. I left all my friends from high school to go off to college on my own, (except for my brother Nic who had already been there for a year when I started). I met a ton of new people, and had a ton of new experiences both good and bad. I also started talking a lot to this guy named Pat who went to OSU... Overall it was one of the best years of my life. (And yes, I had very short hair!)