Stickin' With Sam

I am coming home for fall break tomorrow and I am so excited to see my family and friends, who I haven’t seen for about two months now. I’m counting down the hours, though I still have to get through an early-morning workout tomorrow with the freshmen football players at 6 a.m. Hopefully I won’t miss my flight from being tired.

I was so excited seeing my parents last weekend when they came and visited. It was nice to spend time with them. I feel like we have gotten closer even though we are farther away. I now understand that saying how absence makes the heart grow fonder.

I went out to dinner with my parents and got to do a little shopping with my mother, which I was really looking forward to, and I got to show them my new lifestyle at college. We had our intrasquad game, which was really fun, and my team won by a lot. I scored two goals and we got to meet the alumni.

We haven’t really done a full game situation in a long time and it was really nice to play without stopping a lot. The college game is so much faster, the refs are more lenient and it’s nice to see the ball flying up the field. There’s a lot more contact and I’m a pretty aggressive person, so it’s nice to play my style without getting into trouble for it.

After the game we had a tailgate and got to meet all the parents that came down. It was really nice and I really felt like part of the team meeting every one and having a good time.

I have really missed my siblings — I have three sisters and one brother — a lot even though they could be obnoxious when I was living at home. I’m excited to see how much they have grown up. Charlett is a sophomore in high school, which is scary to say, and it is even scarier because Mckenna will be in high school next year.

I’m planning on going to a Darien volleyball practice — I played on the team for four years — and I’m looking forward to seeing the team and how they play compared to when I was playing on the team.

Obviously I will be getting my coffee and breakfast sandwich again from The Doughnut Inn. I’m excited to see my friends Aaron, Emily and Shannon and my group of friends from Norwalk. We are just going to hang out.

School is going well. I just had one midterm and wrote two essays for tomorrow so I’m looking forward to a little break.

I’m sure I will have a lot of stories to tell you next week and I think it will be easier to come back to school now that I’ve been here.

This weekend is parents’ weekend and it has made me think how fast time is flying. It kind of seems like it was just yesterday that my parents were dropping me off here and now they are coming back. I’m excited to see them, show them around and show them what it is like to be a college student at Richmond.

I’m planning on staying with them at their hotel Friday night and I’m looking forward to taking a shower without wearing flip-flops and sleeping in a big bed. I’m not sure what we are going to do, but we will go out to dinner and me and my mom are definitely going shopping. I don’t know if my dad will be up for it.

I just really want to spend time with them because I don’t get to spend time with them like I used to. I’m used to them being at my side telling me what I should and shouldn’t do and now I am totally on my own and it is so weird. I’m independent now.

Our coach is splitting our team up tomorrow into two teams for our intrasquad game on Saturday. I’m interested to see who I am going to be playing with. A lot of seniors on the team from last year are coming back and playing so it should be a lot of fun. It is going to be exciting for my parents to see me play again. My parents are going to get a feel for my play and what it is like on the college level. The game is so much quicker.

Our assistant coach told us all of our gear is coming in and since we changed sponsors we can’t wait to get our new sticks and start playing with them.

I was sick with the flu on Tuesday and it was the wrong day to be sick because the team played basketball instead of our early-morning run, and I really like playing basketball. I used to play travel until my freshman year of high school.

I like how on our early-morning runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays our coach mixes things up for conditioning, We’ve gone from three-mile runs to 100-yard sprints, and basketball and swimming. We swam for 45 minutes straight this morning and it made me glad that I have competed for the Country Club of Darien swim team the past seven years.

Since we have fall break coming up most of my professors are talking about midterms and it’s like, wow, half of the class has gone by. Except for core they are all semester-long classes. I think academically I am doing pretty well. The writing style is different than high school but other than that I think my grades are good.

I don’t have much else to say other than it’s beautiful outside and I can’t wait to see my parents tomorrow.

See you next week!

I’m sure you want to hear something about lacrosse, but today I want to first talk about football. Everyone down here is so into football and the games are a really big deal. Richmond won the Division I national championship last year so the team has a big following. We played Hofstra on Saturday and beat them, 47-0.

Everybody tailgates WAY before the game, which started at 3:30. We were at the tailgate at 12:30. You meet a lot of people, the fraternities set up barbecues and everybody plays cornhole and other games.

During the game we sit in the student section — we are not allowed to sit anywhere else — and you wouldn’t want to sit anywhere else. After being here for a while I’ve gotten to know some of the players on the team so it makes the games more fun. One of my friends, Kendall, who is also a freshman, scored a touchdown and it was awesome.

After the game most of the athletes go to D Hall, which is the dining hall, and eat together. It was a great day.

Since I’ve gotten here, because football is such a big topic and many of my friends are on the team, I’ve gotten into football even more than before. I’ve always been a big football fan to begin with, but now I am watching other college games on TV. Sunday night I watched the Giants beat the Cowboys and I was so happy with the outcome. I’m glad the Cowboys were defeated, but it was a little too close of a game for my liking.

We have the college sports channel down here, so I’ve been watching a lot of volleyball, which reminds me of my days playing for Darien. I miss it a lot. No one down here realizes how into it I was. I miss playing it. I keep looking to see if Duke is on because I want to see Phoebe Maglathlin, my teammate at Darien and one of my good friends, play.

One of the things that drives me crazy is The Weather Channel seems to be more accurate back home than down here. They never seem to get the forecasts right. Today they said there was supposed to be a thunderstorm during our practice time and it was hot and humid and sunny instead. We never know how to dress properly. It happens all the time.

After practice Monday our coach told us to show up in the locker room at 6:55 the following morning because we were going to go on a 3-mile run. I was disappointed that I had to wake up early on the day that I get to sleep in. Now it looks like we are going to have these runs at the same time every Tuesday and Thursday morning. I’m not an early person so if I am getting up early and I don’t have my coffee I’ll be an unhappy camper.

Next weekend is Parents Weekend and I’m really looking forward to it and spending time with my parents. I feel like I have been here for so long already.

I was kind of in the groove of not feeling homesick anymore until yesterday, when I talked to my younger sister Charlett on the phone. She was saying how much she really missed me and how much she wanted me to come home. That made me feel sad and I wish I could come home and see her. It’s weird because I am really having a lot of fun down here but at the same time I realize how hard it is being away from your family and how much I miss them.

See you next week!

The big news this week is I turned 18 on Monday and am now officially an adult. For having my first birthday away from home, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It was really nice.

I’m used to celebrating with my family but my mother sent me a whole box of things, including pictures from home, clothes, Twizzlers, which is my favorite candy, some perfume and some really cute and funny cards. So it was sort of like being home even though it was not.

Birthdays have always been a big thing for our family. My mother always buys the number of balloons for the age we are turning and have them in our rooms for when we wake up. We then go downstairs and have our presents table, and she even get us a tiara if we have the guts to wear it to school, though I never did. Then we would have a family dinner with cake and everything.

My mom made it as close to being at home as possible, which was really nice.

My friends took me out to dinner, decorated my room and put up a poster with all the legal things I am now allowed to do, like buy lottery tickets, call infomercials, sign my own forms, go to war, be on Jerry Springer, drive an ice cream truck and vote.

Our conditioning coach knew it was my birthday but I don’t think he really cared because we had a really hard session. We had to push 45 pound weights from sideline to sideline, pushing them with your hand while running behind them. It was really hard and I got a lot of blisters. I don’t know how many times we had to do that.

Then we had to do sprints from sideline to sideline, and quite a few of those. If you came in first you didn’t have to do anymore. The first couple it was like, how can we do these, we are all tired. After about eight I decided I was sick of them and went all out and won. Most of the freshmen were done before the upperclassman and we took a lot of grief for that.

This week practice was really based on defense, and I’m not really a defender so I can’t wait until next week, when we work on attack. Because our conditioning coach, Jeff, said we were not in good shape he had us run for three weeks. Next week we head into the weight room, which I like a lot better.

On Saturday our football team has its first home game, against Hofstra, and we are really looking forward to it. One of our friends, Kendall, is playing so we are going to write his name on T-shirts. I used to go to all the games at Darien that didn’t conflict with volleyball so I am kind of excited to see what it is like down here. I went to one last year during my official visit and it was awesome. It is exciting and our mascot is funny looking because we are the Spiders.

It’s different. Everyone gets dressed up nicely for games. I still have to talk to my teammates about what they are wearing because I am used to dressing casually for football games. That’s one thing that’s different here, my wardrobe has changed. Now I’m not just wearing T-shirts and shorts all the time.

One of the things I am happiest about is my mother is running for selectman in Darien this fall and now I will be able to vote for her.

See you next week!

We officially started our lacrosse season with our first day of conditioning on Monday. It was as hard as I expected it to be. Maybe harder.

Every one of the girls was mentally and physically pushed to the limit. We got timed on three 300-yard sprints in a row — you run from the endline to the 50 and back three times.

I’ve done it before on my own but it is different when you have someone telling you what to do, and doing it three times with about a minute break in beteween. When you do it on your own you don’t really have anyone pushing you, and don’t know it your are totally pushing yourself.

Then we went to drills call gassers, where you are on the sideline, sprint across to the other sideline and back. That’s a half-gasser. We did probably 10 of those. Then we went to full gassers, down to the other sideline and back. We did those about 10 times.

I was getting a little dizzy and questioning when this was going to be over because we were so tired.

We ended with an Indian run, where everyone lines up in a single file and we start at a corner of field. The person in the back of the line has to sprint to the front until everyone has gone through it once.

That was just our first day of conditioning.

Wednesday’s session was even harder. Not only did we have conditioning, but we also had a competitive practice with our sticks. It was intense having to go from that to conditioning.

It’s too early to tell how I stack up with the rest of the team. I’m still getting the hang of things but I feel pretty good about my play so far.

Stephy is making everyone feel a lot more comfortable, she’s joking around with us and she makes us feel better. She’s asweome. She has so much energy and she gets personal with you, pulling you aside to tell you what you did wrong and is very encouraging. I was a little nervous at first because the coach who recruited me resigned, so I didn’t know what to expect. But I feel much more at ease now.

Athletes are assigned mandatory study halls for two hours from Monday-Thursday, so I am getting to read a lot, and I hate reading. I guess this is a good thing. Having the study hall helps me to do my work or else I’d probably lie on my bed all day.

I’m taking ceramics, which I did in high school for two years, but I’m still getting adjusted to the way my professor teaches compared to my high school teachers. I miss them a lot.

With all of my schoolwork and lacrosse you probably would not think I’d have time for any fun, but I do get my taste of the social life. My teammates are encouraging about taking us out. So I am getting some fun in.

The panic from the swine flu I wrote last week about seems to be dying down. It turned out the number of cases was not as high as we were told, and a lot of it was just rumors. No cancellation of school for us!

I’m excited to tell you that I finally turn 18 on Monday. I’ve been waiting for this for what seems like five years. We have practice and conditioning first but I’m sure I will do something with my teammates and some friends in my dorm after. Hopefully I’ll have some energy left!

See you next week.

Of all the things I thought I would have to worry about during my first weeks at college, the last was swine flu. Right now there have been 12 cases on campus, and if it gets up to 20 classes are going to be cancelled. Fortunately I don’t know anyone who has caught it. I’m not scared but I don’t want it to impact me or the start of lacrosse.

I’m nervous if I catch the flu I could lose days of practice and opportunities to show my new coach how I can play. It will set my level of play and physicial abilities back behind the other girls, which I don’t want to happen.

Only I would worry about how something like this would affect my sports rather than my physical health.

Everyone on campus has been talking about the flu, but I’m really not that worried about catching it. I’m washing my hands a lot and trying to limit contact with other people’s possessions.

Things have really started to heat up with lacrosse this week. The team is getting united and more comfortable with our coach, and we are really getting into the swing of things. Our coach is really energetic and excited for the season, and she is making me feel the same way. Coming in not knowing the coach made me nervous but I’m definitely more excited to start.

We started testing on Monday, which consists of all the basics — vertical jump, broad jump, the 10, 40 and 300 yard dashes — and upperclassmen tested their lifting. This gives the coach an idea of our condition. I have to improve on some things but I’m feeling comfortable compared to the other girls. I definitely have to improve my speed, but I’m not worried about the lifting part because I’m a pretty big girl compared to the others, and playing on the Darien volleyball team, where we lifted a lot, definitely prepared me on technique.

I’m excited to get my lacrosse gear and see my name over my locker so it feels more official. All the girls on my team are so awesome and I couldn’t be happier with that.

In high school they prepared you for classes as if you were going to a Big 10 school, where it is 60-plus kids and they make you think you will be on your own with no support from you professors. That’s not the case here at all. The professors are very personal, they want you to succeed and they do care about you. I was nervous in the aspect that the teachers in high school made it seem like you have to fend for yourself, but that is not the reality at all.

I had to write a paper for my history class and I guess I did some things wrong, which should be expected because I am not the best writer, and my professor wrote on the bottom of my paper to come see him. At the end of class I went and talked to him and he was totally understanding. I explained why I wrote what I wrote about, and he said I just needed to change a few things and then to come back and see him and he would help me through it. I thought that was so awesome. It definitely made me comfortable. He’s a great professor. From the first day he had me intrigued, which doesn’t usually happen to me in the classroom.

Our first fall practice is next Wednesday so next week I will be able to let you know if I survived it.

Hopefully I will have avoided the swine flu as well.

I’ve been here at Richmond for eight days now and I’m getting much more comfortable with everything. My new classes, my new friends and my new home.

I now know my way around campus, which buildings are which, the best places to eat — you have to go to The Pier for the chicken tender wrap sandwich and the curly fries — and even where the locker rooms are.

I started my classes this week and my professors seem really nice, really energetic and they are definitely not like your average high school teachers, where they make sure you are there for class. You are totally on your own. It is up to you to figure out what assignments you miss and you are totally independent. I like it a lot. You don’t have teachers emailing grades home and your parents yelling at you.

It’s too early to tell about my classes, but the one I am really excited about is ceramics, which I took for two years in high school. Having a class where I’m a little ahead of everyone else is so much more comfortable.

I have become really close with my roommate Kara, who is from Syracuse and my teammate on the lacrosse team. We have been doing almost everything together and had a lot of fun. All the girls in my dorm are really close. We have become close with two girls from Virginia Beach and almost everyone I have met strangely has a connection either to Connecticut or someone else I know. It’s such a small world here.

It’s weird being on my own, having total control of everything and not having my parents saying “You can’t do that.”

We had our first team lacrosse meeting today and we met our coach, Stephy Samaras, and her assistant, Jill. They introduced themselves. She told us what kind of coach she is, what her goals are and about our schedule. We start out with some pretty strong teams. I think it is going to be a good opportunity for me.

The team had its first captains’ practice yesterday and at first I was so nervous playing with these older girls, on a brand new team, having no idea how to adjust to the play and if I would be good enough. I got continally more comfortable. My new nickname is Stevie because there is another girl named Sam on the team. I like it. I have never had another nickname other than Sam so it is cool.

After practice I felt more comfortable. I definitely felt like I was part of the team and not just a recruit.

I have been hanging out with my teammates a lot and they are so nice and welcoming. It’s not like high school where the seniors don’t really interact with the freshmen. It’s like the total oppositie. They are so nice and include us in everything.

On Monday we start our testing for the team, our vertical jump, how much we can clean with weights, 10- and 40-yard sprints and that kind of stuff. I’m curious and nervous about how I’ll compare to the other girls.

Overall, I’m happy, a little homesick but can’t wait to experience new opportunities.

I’ll talk to you next week!

I arrived at Richmond three days ago and I’m still getting adjusted to the new lifestyle here. I don’t have my own car anymore and can’t just do what I want to do, so I have to walk everywhere. My dorm is really far away from where the gym is, a 10-minute walk. It’s not like hopping in my car and driving to Darien High School to work out.

The food so far has been awesome: I guess I can understand the “freshman 15″ because it has been so good. I’m pretty much unpacked and settled in, and my roommate Kara, who is also my teammate on the lacrosse team, is great. I couldn’t have asked for a better roommate. We have been doing everything together.

My parents left yesterday afternoon and said their final goodbyes. It was sad: my mom started crying so I started crying. It was like, Oh my God I am by myself. It was kind of scary.

We have a strict schedule for orientation, all the freshmen are put in groups and you get tours of campus and get introduced to the college. It is very helpful but a little overwhelming.

I’m so surprised how nice the people are. I’m so used to people walking by you and just blowing you off. Here everyone says hello or smiles as you pass them.

I met my new coach two days ago and she seems really cool. She is really energetic. Kara and I had just unpacked and we wanted to stop and see if she was in because this is her first year at the school and she is just getting moved in like we are. We talked to her for about 20 minutes. She discussed our schedule and how we start off with Maryland. Great!

Because of the schedule I have only worked out once so far, which is kind of weird.

Tonight there is a dance and tomorrow there is going to be a get-together with the lacrosse team. Then on Sunday there is a picnic at the president’s house.

It has been a little overwhelming: I kind of feel like I am in camp because everything is scheduled. I’m in college and I want to do things on my own. Still, it has been very exciting.

I’m really looking forward to starting classes on Monday and really getting settled in at my new home.

I’ll check back with you next week and hopefully have more stories to tell.