I don't have to follow any rules except for the ones that I create for myself. As the days have gone by I have slowly but surely felt that I am alone. Not being without my family has created feelings of sadness inside. I know that all of this is just part of life and a certain period of adjustment that everyone in life must go through. I have done some crying and soul searching alone in my dorm room. I am expecting that my time in college will put me to the test and show me my weaknesses and strengths. I have been forced to come to terms with the fact that I am now the only one responsible for my well-being, time management, and academic matters. I must now assume total responsibility for myself. However I know that my family is always here for me as far as moral support is concerned and when I am in need of more money!  rrHaHa!  I am really feeling excited about being in Austin because I am closer to my sister in San Antonio and there is a wide variety of people here to interact with. I love to walk down the streets and see everyone, what they are wearing, how they are acting, and all around just what is going on. I consider myself to be someone who is open to people and their different lifestyles. Harlingen, the town that I am from, has the population at UT and it is a rather conservative place. If some of the people in Austin were to go down to Harlingen and walk the streets, they would get stares and be talked about. I love the fact that in Austin all things go. Going to class was somewhat of a nervous experience for me because I did not know what to expect. I found out that it was somewhat like the high school class experience, except for the fact that there were now hundreds of people in my classes. Also, I don't have to go to class if I don't want to. Although I could not see that as a possibility because I feel if I do that, then I will fall behind and lose valuable information. I feel really stressed because things have seemed to be going wrong for me since I got here. I have been misplacing things, tearing apart my room looking for them and then finding them right under my nose. I guess it is because I feel overwhelmed about being here at school. I just need to relax and enjoy this ride. I find it frustrating that parents and other relatives always give me the bad side of college, like, don't walk by yourself at night because you might get raped, don't spend too much money, don't do this and don't do that. Not that that is not valuable and understood but it's all negative. I like it when people are positive with me and say oh it's going to be great, you are going to have so much fun at college, you will learn so many things. My sister and her fiancé came to see me one day and my future brother-in-law made college seem like the best thing in the entire world. He is now a civil engineer and all he could say was that he wished he could come back to college because he enjoyed it so much. He really gave my roommate and me a better and more comfortable sense of being in college, instead of the Oh my gosh, I'm so scared of college and I know I'm going to end up killing myself view that is usually portray by others. Overall I am a mass of mixed emotions and look forward to anything and everything that I will experience here at the University of Texas at Austin.