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Hallmark Town to College City: The Struggle is Real

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at NCSU chapter.

I am from a small rural town in North Carolina called Reidsville. I like to describe it to my friends as a “Hallmark” town. It is one of those places where everybody knows everybody. The kind of place where my hairdresser lives in my neighborhood, if you are bored you drive around and if you need a snack, no worries because there is a Dollar General on every other street.

My town’s population is around 14,500 people, so you can imagine my surprise when I learned that North Carolina State University’s (NCSU) student body was double that. As you might expect, going from small town living to big city living was “just really tough,” as I told my parents every night. My first few days on campus before classes started were some of the longest days of my life. Living in an eight-person suite with strangers and wandering around such a big campus was a tremendous change. I missed my hometown, the little traffic, and my friends.

It wasn’t until classes finally started, and I began going to interest meetings for clubs that I started enjoying college. My suitemates and I held game and movie nights. I experienced my first gameday, which even with no tickets, a loss and pouring rain, was a success. I began crafting a routine, learning my way around campus and getting used to the dining hall food. It took five days from the day I moved in for me to stop feeling physically homesick. Sometimes, I still miss my hometown, but I am lucky enough to have friends to lean on whenever I feel homesick. The fact that NCSU’s campus is always bustling helps me feel like I am not alone. There are so many activities and people that there is always something to do.

Although NCSU’s campus is much different from my small town, it is beginning to feel like home. A little less redneck and a whole lot more red and white.Β 

Brenna Morrison is a freshman at North Carolina State University and this is her first year as a member of Her Campus. Before coming to NC State University, Brenna took creative writing classes all throughout high school and was a member of her high schools creative writing club. She designed and created a scrapbook for the National Beta Convention as well. She also interned at a local District Attorneys Office where she updated case files and learned the ins and outs of Law. This internship inspired her to write her senior paper on Corruption in Correctional Institutions, which involved extensive research and interviews. She has recently studied abroad in Prague and hopes to study abroad again and learn about other counties Criminal Justice systems. Brenna is majoring in Criminology with a minor in Law and Justice at NC State University and hopes to become a criminal defense attorney or work for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Brenna is from Reidsville, North Carolina, a small rural town which no one has ever heard of. She loves to read, travel, surf and is an avid movie watcher. Her favorite book is π˜‰π˜¦π˜’π˜€π˜© π˜™π˜¦π˜’π˜₯ by Emily Henry and her favorite movies are 10 π˜›π˜©π˜ͺ𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘐 𝘏𝘒𝘡𝘦 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘡 𝘠𝘰𝘢 and 𝘈 π˜“π˜¦π˜’π˜¨π˜Άπ˜¦ 𝘰𝘧 𝘡𝘩𝘦π˜ͺ𝘳 π˜–π˜Έπ˜―.