Well, here goes nothing.  

For those who have met me and spent any amount of time around me, you know I never have much (if anything) to say. That had to change eventually, so how’s 1,500 words?

I read nearly every Onward State senior column last year to prepare. Most start with the stories of their freshman year and showcase how much they’ve grown in four years. Starting there does not do my story enough justice, so to high school we go.

Being blunt, I was a loser in high school. I had no friends, I sat by myself at lunch, and I was grossly overweight. I didn’t go to my junior prom or senior ball and instead opted to work my minimum-wage job at Wawa while everyone else was having a good time.  

It’s easy to see why I wanted to get away from my hometown. I was blessed enough by my parents and grandfather to pick where I wanted to go to college, in-state or not. Enter Penn State.  

I’m not gonna sit here and act like I have some heartwarming reason for applying to Penn State or how it became my top choice. No one in my family is an alumnus, and outside of football and having a good business program, I have no idea what the draw was to high school me.  

One thing is for certain, it was in a remote location and four hours away from home. Close enough where I can visit family whenever I like, but far enough away that only one other person from my graduating class chose Penn State.  

On one fateful winter morning, I got the acceptance email while I logged in for virtual classes one weekday morning. I immediately ran downstairs to tell my parents the good news. I got into a school that could change my life.  

I knew I wanted to accept the offer of admission immediately, but naturally, my parents wanted me to think it over. I visited Penn State just once during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the campus was a ghost town. Still, I fell in love. 

After some deliberation, I accepted the offer of admission, set to enroll in late June for the school’s summer session as part of the LEAP program. I wasn’t too thrilled about having to start college just two weeks after I finished high school, but oh well, I was a Nittany Lion and set to major in business.   

As I sat in my chair for high school graduation, all I thought about was the journey I was set to embark on. Finally, a fresh start, where no one knew me, and I could finally build the lifelong relationships I had always heard about.  

On June 26, 2021, I moved into the second floor of Brumbaugh Hall in East Halls. As much as I wish I could say this is when everything changed, nothing did. For the first two weeks of summer session, I was the same loser with no friends and as shy as ever.  

It felt like high school all over again. I wanted to go home. One day, when I was alone in my room, I yelled and cried for about 10 minutes. But through it all, I pushed ahead. This was not going to be like high school. I was going to change.  

A few days after my mental breakdown, and I still have no idea why I did this, I asked one of the guys in the dorm next to mine if he wanted to grab dinner. He agreed, and we headed to East Commons.

Little did I know that the next-door neighbor named AJ Capobianco became my first friend at Penn State. After we returned to our floor, he introduced me to some other people on the floor who sat in the common area. We played a board game, and I genuinely had a good time for the first time at college.  

Slowly but surely, I began to hang out with other people on the floor. In what seemed like an instant, we flooded the common area as much as possible and became best friends. I finally had people I called my friends, and I had never been happier.  

Summer session came to a close, and I was set to return to campus for the fall semester with a new roommate named Cameron Weil. We lived in Brumbaugh during LEAP, which made this transition 10 times easier. I guess we enjoyed each other’s company, because we’ve lived together ever since, and he’s my best friend here.

Freshman year flew by, as did sophomore, junior, and now senior year. Through it all, those same people I met on the second floor of Brumbaugh Hall remained my closest friends. Today, five of the people in my nine-person house were on that floor.  

If I had to pick one word for my four years here, it would be change. I changed my personality to break out of my social shell, and I changed majors. That’s right, the once-business major changed to journalism at the start of his junior year.

I needed an outlet to showcase myself. In the fall after I switched, I made my way to the Bellisario Involvement Fair. My first stop? Onward State’s table. Needless to say, it was a great experience, and the blog was the only spot I applied to.

Before joining Onward State, the only “news” article I ever penned was for that application. I am not sure why we hired a guy with zero experience, but man, am I grateful.  

With two years as a member of the blog under my belt, I was lucky enough to cover two fantastic runs and travel to some amazing places. I helped cover the baseball team during their improbable run in last year’s Big Ten Tournament and was a member of the men’s hockey beat during the team’s Cinderella run to the Frozen Four.  

As a member of the hockey beat, I traveled to Washington, D.C., for the Capital Hockey Classic, Wrigley Field for the Frozen Confines Series, and Allentown for the 2025 NCAA Tournament Regionals. If you said I would do this to freshman-year me, I would call you insane.  

Outside of Onward State and in my senior year alone, I traveled to Pittsburgh, West Virginia, Indianapolis, and the Orange Bowl with my best friends. To call these unforgettable experiences would be the understatement of the century.

Just as I thought it could, Penn State changed my life. Physically, I look completely different than when I started in June 2021 (thanks to a newfound gym and caffeine addiction). Socially and emotionally, I’ve grown in ways I could’ve never expected. I’m not a social butterfly and am still the same shy, ginger I have always been, but meeting new people is not nearly as scary.  

Now, I sit 17 days from graduation after a senior year that, at times, has been a physical and emotional whirlwind. Between some sleepless nights and the mounting pressure of entering the workforce, I’ve felt overwhelmed at times. Regardless, I made it, and the good times have far outweighed the bad.

So, that’s my story. Before you close this tab and forget you ever read this column, I have a laundry list of people whom I need to thank for their support and care during my four years on this campus. Here goes.

To Mom and Dad: Your continued love and support mean the world, and I cannot find the words to say how grateful I am. Whether through the small acts of support, the acts of kindness, or constant reminders of home, you are the reason I will walk across that stage in a few weeks. I love both of you.  

To my family: Thank you for always being there for me and offering any advice that has stuck with me throughout college. Jack and Clifton, you’d better choose Penn State when the time comes.

To my friends and roommates: I have no idea how all of you put up with me, but you are the best group of people a person could ever ask for. Each of you has helped me through hard times, both recently and in the past, and I owe you all. Here’s to further tomfoolery and borderline degeneracy.  

To Nolan, Joe, Jack, and Matt Brown: Thank you for your faith in me as a writer and for showing me the ropes. 

To pickleback shots, Cafe 210, dollar vodka sodas and Champs half-off happy hour, $3 burgers from Brothers, Dollar Dog Nights, late-night chicken over rice platters, Mo from Monte Carlo’s, the lunch special from Tadashi, and everywhere that sells caffeine in State College: Thank you. I do not need to elaborate further.  

And finally, if you made it this far and have ever read anything I put on this silly blog, thank you for reading.