My College Years

Anne and me

First off, thank you for all your wonderful ideas of how to celebrate one million pageviews! I'm going to talk with Mr. Handsome and get back to y'all soon.

Remember when you submitted questions and feedback to my "Ask Ellie" post? I look at those comments frequently and have been using them to plan my blog posts. (Feel free to continue to submit ideas, either as a comment or via email--nashvillewife@gmail.com.)

A few of you asked me to blog about my college years, so here goes!

I chosen a state school with a student population of more than 40,000. Not only was tuition significantly cheaper than private or out-of-state schools, but I had heard from multiple sources that the journalism department was very strong. (With scholarships, my education costs were very reasonable.) I also had a friend from church who was a sophomore in architecture and had great things to say about the academic strength of the university.

My friend had told me about the house she lived in on campus, so I visited and absolutely fell in love with it. Of course I was nervous about attending such a large, public school, but she assured me that this house would provide a close-knit community of caring girls to lean on.

I ended up being accepted into both the university and the house, and my friend's words proved true. I was blessed to be able to stay in that house during all five of my semesters on campus, so I never had to experience true dorm life.

I lived with 37 other Christian girls in a four-story house. We did all our own cooking and cleaning, which meant we paid significantly less than those who lived in the dorms. Next door was a house full of Christian guys who kept an eye on us. (Don't worry, we had plenty of rules--which we made--to prevent shady things from happening.)

Each girl shared a study room with one or two others, although we slept dormitory-style, with 20 girls in one large attic room and 18 in the other.

My study room in freshman year

You may be surprised to hear that I have never slept better in my life than I did during college! Even though everyone went to bed at different times and the door was constantly opening and closing, no one ever complained. I rarely ever woke up. The room I was in--called the "warm dorm"--was kept at a constant 65 degrees, and the other--the "cold dorm"--was somewhere between 15 and 50 degrees, depending on the season. (In the winter, they kept the windows open...)

Every week, each girl prepared one or two meals for the entire house and cleaned one or two areas; bathrooms were always the worst. Every Sunday after church, we had the guys over for lunch, which meant we had to make food for 70 people. (The boys prepared dinner for us on Saturday nights, but let's just say that many of the girls elected to make their own food.)

We had plenty of social events and study parties, and there was always someone to talk to. It truly was a great way to spend my college years! I'll be forever grateful to God for the life-long friendships I made while living there, especially the one with a gal named Anne. She introduced me to her family, and a certain brother of hers and I really hit it off. LOL. Click here to read more about how I met Mr. Handsome.

Oh, and by the way, I graduated with a bachelor's in journalism and concentrations in both business and public relations.