The University of Oklahoma

In honor of Oklahoma’s win over Texas saturday morning….BOOOOOOOMERRR!!!! I thought I would share with those new to the blog my OU story that I posted back on July 10th this summer. So, here goes.

3 years ago (wow…) I had what seemed like a big ol’ decision to make: What college do I attend? My original decision of 6 was between: Iowa State, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma, Baylor, Arkansas or Alabama. I got accepted to all of them so that didn’t narrow down my decision for me. The decision process took my entire senior year to make. Literally, I made my decision in April. And I was moving to wherever in July. Seriously….procrastination queen.

After some more time I decided to cross out OSU and Alabama because I had never visited and really had no intention of visiting. That wasn’t too hard of a decision. Why did I apply then?? Don’t know. I crossed out Arkansas because what seems like my entire town goes there and I wanted something new. Keep in mind this was 18 year-old never left home high schooler me. Then, it was down to my top 3: Iowa State, OU, and Baylor. This took me quite a while to decide. Side note…with my dad being in the military our family gets 4 free years of school. Hallelujah, right? That being said, I decided to cross Baylor off my list because if my dad decided not to give me all 4 years I was not about to pay that money for it. So then the BIIIIIIG decision: Iowa State or OU? ISU or OU, ISU or OU, OU or ISU, OU or ISU back and forth I went for months. Pros and cons to each, but I made my decision, from mainly one factor. Distance from my family.

Fast forward to July….i’m moving to Norman, Oklahoma. Two cars, my bear, and my naive self headed North on I-35.

  

I could tell you about my two years at OU but you’d be reading until your eyes fell out. Needless to say (i’ll keep it as brief as possible)…

I moved in,

I rushed,

I pledged a sorority,

I got my big,

And my little,

Moved into the sorority house,

Participated in the other side of rush,

Attended many football games (with OU/TX weekends involved),

Dressed up for a good amount of events,

Went to my fair share of date parties,

   

And came home very frequently (these pictures are a measurement because every time I came home mom and I would cook together…more on these recipes another time).

 

And yes, did the whole go to class thing too. But who takes pictures of that??

Fast forward again…to now. I am sitting in my house completing my application with a completed application to attend another school.

How did that happen? Well, ever since I was a junior in high school I had a multitude of health issues. I’m sure I will go into detail about that in another post because that’s definitely part of life’s colors. (Update: I did HERE) However, I still went to OU because I figured that while I was in Norman I could come home a couple weekends out of the semester to make my appointments and carry on with my life. Besides, I wanted to do my college thing! A lot of my appointments ended up becoming “We need you back in 2 weeks” and “Please come back in 6 weeks but a week before that you need to get blood work done” Mind you, at this point i’m seeing approximately 2-8 different kinds of doctor’s so I started coming back home often, hence all of the meals mom and I made together. The more I came back the more I missed home and hated leaving again. The more doctors I went to who couldn’t give me answers the more frustrated I became because I still wasn’t feeling well.

I have never been one to admit defeat easily so through the frustration, the waiting on answers, the missing home, the always feeling sick, I pushed through. I drove back to Norman every Monday morning when I didn’t want to after a weekend at home. I went to class every day when I felt so sick that I didn’t want to get out of bed. However, after semesters of pushing myself and putting up a “front” when all I really wanted to do was curl up into a ball and hide. I got extremely tired of it and couldn’t do it anymore. I couldn’t be the Molly that most people know. And you really don’t get it until you’re put in this situation, so i’m sure it was “sketchy” to my friends that I was gone all the time.

My parents and I spent maaaaaaaany late nights awake talking. I didn’t want to come home because I felt like I would be a failure if I did, kind of like I quit school. What would people think of me? What would I do if I came home? Everything was so unknown. I didn’t want to stay there because it brought back all the memories of how awful I felt all the time and besides that, I WAS feeling awful all the time. And I was just plain tired of driving home for appointments.

My mom said something to me during one of the late night conversations that has still stuck in my head: “Molly, everyone takes different paths throughout life to get to the same end result.” That result being a college diploma. After I heard her say that I realized if I came home and transferred somewhere else I wouldn’t be a failure.

I decided to come home. And it was STILL difficult for me to do so.

On Tuesday (this past July) my mom, sister, and I drove to Norman (ladder in tow) to move the rest of my stuff back home.

And we did just that. We got my stuff, grabbed some lunch, said our goodbyes to Norman and we were heading home. I said farewell to my home of 2 years and shut that chapter of my book closed.

I have no clue what my entire future has in store for me, but I do know that I am getting my diploma. My decision to transfer has nothing to do with the school. It was just my decision and what was best for me. OU was a path that I chose to travel that didn’t work for me. So now I have to choose another path (TBA after I finish my application) that will take me to MY end result of a diploma. (UPDATE: I will be attending the University of Texas at Dallas this spring). The University of Oklahoma was 2 year experience that taught me about the Colors of Life. And now I am trusting Jesus to take care of the rest. But i’ll forever be a Sooner….and a Cyclone.

Life’s Color today is Crimson and Cream.
Be thankful for family always. Do what is best for you. Not everyone follows the same path. God always has a plan, so trust it. Don’t worry about what others might think.