When I was deciding where to go to college, my dad took my friend Norma with me when I went to Kent State University to interview to see if I wanted to go there. I noticed a woman then wearing a pin on her chest, and it struck me. I had no background to college life then, as my parents had not ever attended a college, thanks to the depression and hard times so that they like so many others, wanted their children to have it better than they had had.
Kent State University is located on the eastern half of the state of Ohio near Cleveland, and while I had relatives who lived in Cleveland, I knew nothing about it at all. I just did not want to go to Bowling Green University which was near my hometown on the western half of the state. Most of my classmates were going to BG but I wanted to go to KSU, and two of my classmates likewise did the same.
I was assigned to a dormitory where I lived with two girls who were both seasoned and older college girls...one looks a lot like Mary Ann Mobley in her dark hair and dark eyes because she was an Italian girl...the other was a transfer from another college who had already pledged into a sorority there which was not available at Kent State University...Because I came to know Barbara, my roommate, I learned to know a few of her sorority sisters as she is also a member of a house on campus.
That first year at Kent State I did something that I had never done in high school and that was to run for public office. I decided to run for a student council representative from the freshman class. I had the nerve and the gall to go from door to door, introduce myself to everyone, and ask for the votes. I ended up having my picture blown up sky high and people recognized me...because I hustled, I ended up with the highest number of votes I was told. I was unafraid to put myself forward then and won the race.
I loved Kent State University...I had met people who became good friends, and I enjoyed being away from home, being out on my own for the first time, and finally feeling a new and different lifestyle. I am not going to say that I adjusted well but the roommate who had transferred from some other college was a girl who annoyed the daylights out of me with her dictatorial and fussy ways...she ended up leaving us at the end of a quarter finally as she had a lovelife and was engaged to be married. I bottled up all my resentments of her inside but I never forgot her and her impact on me. From then on, I was with only the other roomie and it was much better.
During that time, I attended student council meetings, and had the most fun and greatest time...I was in honors English classes because I perform well on tests.
My only real difficulty in the world of academics is mathematics...and some forms of science even though I had been a biology major. I loved science, but math is my nemesis...due to high school and junior high school I never learned to do algebra well. I did learn geometry at one point but only because my neighbor and friend gave me a free tutoring exercise and through her, I caught on, and impressed my sub teacher so much they thought I was a math genius...Not so...Sally was just a good teacher and I understood it from her.
I loved history and I could remember facts better than anything so I did all my academic show off stuff in world history and american history. I am an excellent student when I choose to be.
So I learned that college is not as simple and easy as high school. I had to learn to adjust to studying, something that honestly, I did not do very much when in high school. I had to crack the books...I, like other students, would stay up all night for exams, and I learned an entirely new lifestyle regarding classes, exams, and studying.
We were all pretty innocent in those days, naive, and incredibly honorable and decent!
Eisenhower is the president of the USA at that time in history, and it is an age that is recalled with a lot of pride by those who fall in that generation of college students.
We were taught to do right, to be honest, to be creative, to be good citizens, and to be proud...at least in Ohio, that was the lesson!
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