10.23.2012 - Entry #13: Parks in the Neighborhood

University Ridge Park

Life Before: Emails Galore!

     I'm a little late with this blog post, but oh well. I'd rather write it now when I'm more collected and focused on what I want to say than to have written this Sunday evening emotionally confused and physically stressed. The picture to the left shows the view I saw while I was at University Ridge Park this past Saturday. While I was there, I contemplated my new home and life in Reno as I overlooked the entire city. My life now is quite a bit different than how it was this time last year; I don't have a dozen emails to reply to every 6 hours or so, meetings to attend on the other side of town, and I don't have a job to head off to once classes are done. In many ways, I have a lot more freedom than I did as a senior, freedom that I enjoy having.
     And yet, I find myself stuck in a bout of nostalgia lately. The more I explore the Reno-Sparks area, the more I experience an exhilaration for the prospects of new adventures, but also a longing for the familiar. This longing came to a culmination after I left the park and found a Filipino marketplace, Manila Hong Kong, and spent over $40 on various Filipino foods. It's been over 2 months since I had Pan de Ube and I will say that I was more than a bit ecstatic after finally having some.
     I know why I'm here at the University of Nevada, Reno. I came here because I knew that staying home for my undergraduate career was not the best way for me to grow and develop as a person and as a scholar. I know that I made the right decision leaving home because I'm gaining an education here that extends outside of the classroom. However, I did not anticipate this new appreciation I now have of Vegas; of my house, my neighborhood, my friends and family. I don't tend to have weekends like this past weekend; I've been adjusting better to this new lifestyle of college than other first years it seems like. I did get bouts of homesickness before this weekend, but having developed a wide circle of friends, both new and old, as well as involving myself with my classes and organizations such as RHA and Circle K, helped stave off those feelings. But overlooking the entire city of Reno from the park, and seeing something entirely different than the Las Vegas Valley that I'm used to seeing...it was pretty rough.