A New Horizon

In high school, relationships were considered fairly simple for the fact that you saw that person everyday, you weren't always busy with the hectic schedules that come along with being a college student. In high school I was in a serious relationship for about a year. We had that promise of forever, and nothing was going to get in the way of the plans that we had for our future, but everything began to change. My girlfriend and I went to separate colleges, even though it was 20 minutes apart, it was a closer distance than we had before. The first few weeks were full of excitement, telling stories about how classes were going and everything her day consisted of. It was a new experience for both of us, and it seemed like everything was falling into place, until about 2 months in. The phone calls goodnight stopped, whenever I had a bad day she did not try and make it better or even like she cared. I knew something was wrong. I kept asking if everything was okay, and she just brushed it off and changed the subject. She eventually told me that she felt like it was our time to go our separate ways, I honestly did not know what to say. All the times in high school when we couldn't take our eyes off each other, the moments where we literally laughed until we cried, late movie nights, and everything else that made that relationship like no other. I tried to remind of her of all the times we shared and it did not make a difference to her, she had made up her mind and there was nothing I can do about it. Weeks went by and I still tried to text her, but I never got a reply. I saw all these couples holding hands and having the time of their lives and I just thought about what I did wrong to make her want to go. Eventually she got up the nerve to tell me the real reason why she had changed, which involved a late night with a random hook up. I was devastated for a while, not knowing what I did not wrong to make her make the decisions she did. It took me a long time to realize I never messed up. I did everything I possibly could to show her how much I cared, I bought her flowers, I wrote her notes, I made her a get well card and got her a balloon when she wast feeling well. I realized you can always try to do the right things but sometimes it is just never enough for some people. Since the breakup, I started doing things for myself, which I had never done before and it actually was pretty nice. I started making friends and laughing in a new way. I met a pretty nice girl, who just got out of the same situation I did and we hit it off pretty well. Things are gradually getting back on track. It took me sometime to realize that everything happens for a reason, and if it is meant to be it'll find a way, if not, then you just have to learn from your mistakes and move on with your life because the world is not going to stop spinning just for you.

Free writing

I don’t really know what to blog about so I’m just going to free write for a little and hope I get somewhere. Next weekend is fall break. I was supposed to go home and see my family, but my ride fell through. I’m going to feel really left out of the loop with my friends. They all went to fairly local schools and I was the only one to go far. It’s hard to go home for fall break because I live about 8 hours away. If my mom were to pick me up, it would be a 32 hour total drive for her to pick me up and drop me back off. I would only have 1 day to enjoy the fall break. So I’ll probably have to stay at Tech. That’s not a bad thing though.

            I have to plan out a way to get back to Philadelphia from Tech. So far I mapped out how I could get to Washington D.C. Hopefully, my mom will pick me up from there, because I wouldn’t make it to Washington D.C in time to catch the bus to Philadelphia. I feel bad making my mom drive so long to pick me up. I wish I could have just brought my own car down here. It would make getting back home so much easier.

            I’m kind of nervous to go back home. A lot changed when I was here. I broke up with my girlfriend, so I can’t see her anymore. My friends are going to be with their family for an amount of the time that I’ll be back. My family has gotten a little instable after my grandfather almost passed away in June. So things are going to be a lot more different than what I left them.

I like it at college because I get to control my life almost entirely. I get to control how and what I eat. I decide when I have to be home during the week and on the weekends. I don’t have my mom texting me all the time asking where I am and what time I am going to be home. I feel like I’m free from the outside world.

That’s not totally a good thing. I feel like at college we don’t know what is going on in the world. We’re oblivious to the news. Personally, I had no clue that the government was shut down. I know other people feel the way I do. I guess I’ll have to try to see what’s going on in the world outside of Virginia Tech.

Get to know me

I guess I never really wrote an introductory blog. So I’m going to do that now because I want everyone to know background so that they can look at what I post from my shoes. My names Matt VanPelt and I’m from Springfield, Pennsylvania. Springfield is a suburb about 15 minutes south of Philadelphia. In high school I went to Philadelphia almost every weekend. I guess I made myself become a “city slicker.”

People in Philadelphia don’t care about anyone other than themselves. I guess that’s how they survive. I know that I picked up that mentality. If I see a homeless man, I don’t even think about it. I’ve been asked for money so much that it doesn’t even phase me. I guess I stopped thinking of bums as people and more like a tree that was on the same corner everyday.

            I’ve carried that mentality to Virginia Tech. I’m used to seeing a homeless person and not feeling sorry for them. My friends who are from Southern Virginia are not used to seeing a homeless person. If we ever walk by a bum, I don’t care but they really do. They get all upset that he has no money. But I know that if I gave a homeless man money its not going to help him in the long run. I know that if I gave money to every homeless man in Philadelphia I’d be homeless too.

            Where I come, from cursing is a part of normal conversation. But if I curse when I’m talking normally people from the South think I’m angry. It’s just another word in my vocabulary. I know I don’t need to say the words, but it’s just a habit that I need to break. I probably should break it, but then when I go back home, ill pick it up again. So I really don’t know if I should even try to break it. Why should I try?

It’s part of who I am and where I come from. It’s my culture and that’s something that you should never change. My culture is one where you say “wallter” instead of water. My culture is one where you say “Philadolphia” instead of Philadelphia.

Maybe I have an accent to you but you have one to me. Maybe my culture is weird to you, but yours is also weird to me.