With the start of the 2022-2023 school year, it is finally time for the class of 2023 to start thinking about their futures. The common app for seniors to apply to colleges opened up on August first, but in order for seniors to be able to decide where they belong many seniors will take college visits to see if they could really call a place their home for the next four years. On the weekend of September 15-18, I took my first college visit trip to Baton Rouge to tour the beautiful campus of LSU. 

I flew into Baton Rouge the night of the 15th, where one of my best friends, Renne Fisher, a freshman at LSU, picked me up and my weekend adventure had started. Walking down the steps of the airport, I casually walked by a crowd of strangers and in the crowd was Renee, as I eagerly ran up to her and gave her a hug after not seeing her for a month, something about Baton Rouge already felt like home to me. We walk to her car where I meet the next LSU student, her roommate. We go and drive around campus late at night and grab a bite to eat. I see so many students out and about at midnight which seemed weird to me on a Thursday night but I then remember that there’s no curfew in college. We get back to Blake Hall where their dorm is and I feel like I’m almost in a hotel. They have keycards to swipe called “tiger cards’’ that get them into their building and then again to get into their room. While their two-person shared living space is much smaller than my own room back home, they were able to decorate it and make it their own personal space to make it feel homier. 

The next day, Friday I was able to get my own taste of everyday campus life. We started the day by going and eating in the dining hall and while the food was not equal to a five-star restaurant it definitely is a step up on what I can cook myself. After breakfast, we went on a walk where I got my tour of the beautiful campus where I truly started believing that I could see myself there in a year, after seeing many different types of dorms, the buildings where classes took place, and of course Mike the Tiger, I realized I needed a game day outfit for the game the next day vs Mississippi State that really screamed college. Now if there’s one thing me and Renee do well together it’s breaking our bank accounts with our shared shopping addiction. We went to many boutiques and each found a perfect game day outfit for the next day. After a whole lot of walking and shopping, we went to the LSU student union where we had lunch with some of her friends, where I got to meet some more LSU students and hear what made them choose the college themselves and get many different outlooks about the campus. We spent the rest of the day walking around campus and going into many different buildings with Renee as my own personal tour guide. Later that night we went out with a bunch of people to give me what they would call “the full college experience.” After Friday I wasn’t sure that anything else could get me as excited for college as that day did, but I was quickly proven wrong the next day.

Saturday morning I woke up and was so excited for the day since it was game day! We started getting ready around eleven since the game was at 5, and that day I was introduced to communal bathroom showers, and let me just say I wasn’t the hugest fan of, but it definitely did not turn me away from dorm life. All of her friends came to our dorm to meet up and hang out until we made our way to the field where tailgating was taking place around one. Before going on this trip, I already had been to many SEC school tailgating before so I already knew that these tailgates would be no joke. The field that I saw yesterday that was empty was filled with many tents where multiple fraternities were hosting fun tailgates and giving out free food. We spend our time at multiple tents until it is time to enter the stadium where the real fun begins. I was so lucky that Renee had gotten me a student guest ticket so I was able to sit in the student section, which is WAY bigger than the usual Devine High School student section so it would be an understatement to say I was a little overwhelmed. 

When the first quarter was over it almost felt like the game was done and LSU would take the loss, but the crowd all changed when the second quarter started and it look like LSU had a chance to come back. With the spirit of the fans in the stands and the mentality of the players in the game switched, LSU was victorious over Mississippi State 31-16. Once the game was over we walked back to the dorms to get ready for a fun night out celebrating the win of the Tigers.

When I woke up the next morning on Sunday, I felt a little sad knowing that it was my last day in Baton Rouge. Renee and I decided to spend the day together just shopping, walking around campus, and eating before it was time to say goodbye to all of my new friends I had just made that weekend. When she dropped me off at the airport we said goodbye but I wasn’t terribly sad because I knew I would be back to visit again and couldn’t wait to go home and finish my application to LSU with hopes to be a student there the next fall semester. Geaux Tigers!