By Sam Kimmel

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get.” – Forrest Gump (1994)
Forrest. Gump. A man that never stopped running from a fictional movie that was released a whole year before I was even born. I swear I had no intention of starting this with a Forrest Gump nod, but there it is. And my god was he right.
Coming from a small town, just 45 minutes from here, I can honestly say I did not think I’d end up at yet another small school.
Saint Francis University is a school that many students will gripe over for the following reasons:
• Weather
• Cost of tuition
• Lack of anything around here to do
• Lack of food, late at night (PLEASE BRING US A TACO BELL)
• Lack of parking in convenient locations….at convenient times
• Being on a mountain
• Weather, again
• The chicken tenders at Frankie’s/Padua Express/Adamucci’s (What happened?? You used to taste so good!)
o Side note: Today I was literally given two containers of chicken tenders for free today from a staff member because she knew how bad they were…
• THE WI-FI.
• Weather….seriously, there is a foot of a snow with a blizzard coming through SFU and we still have classes?
Despite those reasons, and many others, this school is a great place. I’m not going to lie, those things listed above…they can be irritating. However, it is the people here that make this place special.
I first went to Full Sail University (online), then came here, then back home to Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), before finally coming back here. I have said this a thousand times to my friends and family, but I’ll say it again…leaving here was a mistake. I’ve always felt like this place is my home away from home and it’s because of the lifelong friendships I’ve made here with people that I would have never been friends with before.
Without these people in my life, I would have been so lost. Two years ago (about), I went through a cancer “scare.” Long story short, I had to leave the Patched Together service event (for the Healing Patch…if you want more information about their cause, here is the link: http://patchedtogether.com/the-healing-patch/) early because I thought my appendix was going to burst.
I was having really bad/sharp pains, in the lower right side of my abdomen, that would just not go away. After hours of being tested, monitored and given antibiotics, I was told by my doctor that I had testicular cancer. WHAT?
My whole world was upside down. That night, I told my fraternity brothers, close friends and family about it all. It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, but the support was overwhelming.
Over the next few weeks, I was tested thoroughly and a miracle happened…it was a misdiagnosis. I actually had a hernia (and still do) with kidney stones that somehow (and I’m not a health science major, so if any of you would like to explain how that works to lead to a misdiagnosis, then be my guest). I was upset for a long time, but looking back I can say that I am honestly thankful for it more than anything. The people that were there for me, with the support I received, made the whole experience bearable.
Aside from all of that craziness, college has been absolutely nothing like I had imagined. Throughout my time thus far I have: pledged a fraternity, wrote for The Troubadour, gone two days without sleep…multiple times, found a love for coffee, had my heartbroken (not by coffee), found new love (besides coffee), tried Chipotle (where have you been my whole life?), became editor of The Troubadour, lost two childhood friends tragically, had that terrific cancer scare, became president of my fraternity, made new friends, found ways to cure a hangover, found the cheapest ways possible to buy textbooks (or not at all thanks to free PDF files), have dug around my coin jar for Taco Bell money, dropped/destroyed my phone in the mall here at good ol’ SFU, smashed a car with a sledgehammer (Relay for Life event….I’m not a criminal), stole a friend’s car for him to find on the baseball fields…(oh…I might be), danced foolishly onstage (AirBand, Greek Sing, etc.), swallowed a fish (that’s just disgusting), found a love for running (thanks Forrest), found a love for working out in general, lost the drive to go to the gym (slowly finding it again), found millions of excuses to push off doing an assignment, found ways to complete an assignment I forgot about in seconds, had my toughest obstacles in life and now I can honestly say that I’m thankful for all of it.
Looking at that long list, I realize there are so many things that I have left off, but this is just my first post of many to come.
I love to write. I’ll be honest though, I don’t even know where this writing will go sometimes…I just do it. I hope you all enjoy this nonsense. Looking forward to writing more in the future.
I’ll leave you all with this last quote as well…’cause you know, that’s good for speeches and stuff.
“I went to college for four years.” – Kim Kardashian
Do with that what you will.