freshman year through the stairwell

If you follow me on Instagram I'm sure you've seen me post photos in this stairwell a million times. As silly as it sounds, this stairwell has become one of the most special places for me.

Countless tears, smiles, laughs, and memories have been made in this place and it shows the growth and progress I have made throughout my time as a freshman. When I moved into my dorm ten months ago, I had no idea that the stairwell directly next to my room would hold such a special place in my heart.

The first impact this stairwell had on my life was back in September. There were people in my dorm room and I was feeling anxious about socializing and making friends. I was hiding in the stairwell calling my friend when some girls from down the hall invited me to hang out in their room to escape the craziness. I ended up spending hours laughing and talking in their room and little did I know that those girls would turn out to be my best friends in the whole wide world. I truly don't think that I would have bonded with them if I wasn't hiding in that stairwell.

About a month or two later I was in the stairwell when I experienced my first heartbreak over the phone. I remember feeling like my life as I knew it was over as I was sobbing in that stairwell. I experienced such a painful moment in the same place that I would soon make so many cherished memories.

The very next weekend I found myself in one of the hardest places in my life, plastering on a fake happy persona to go out for halloween weekend. Every night before we went out we gathered in the stairwell to take photos. Behind the huge smile in all of my social media posts that weekend, I was a train-wreck. But after a handful of meltdowns when I was out, I made it through the weekend and was proud to say I tried my best to go have fun. Being in the same stairwell where I experienced the most hurt a week prior and then having to fake a smile for photos was one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it taught me so much about never judging a book by its cover, especially since you never know what is truly going on behind closed doors, or in this case, stairs.

The stairwell soon became a place of comfort, as it was where I had to take all of my therapy calls when my roommate was in our room. This stairwell was the place where I finally began to heal.

Throughout the year I received multiple life changing calls in the stairwell. Some were the worst calls to get; learning that family members were sick and injured. I felt as if this place was always going to bring bad news. But even though there were bad calls, I also received calls that forever changed my year in the best way. The first one was from the Wisconsin Football team offering me my dream job as a videographer. During that phone call I had no idea that this position would be one of the best things that ever happened to me and bring me closer with my coworkers and players as well as lead me towards the dream of a forever career in sports media. I also received my sorority bid call in the stairwell for the same organization my mom was a part of when she was in college. Because the stairwell is right next to my room, I always ran there to receive some of the worst and some of the best news this year.

While this stairwell has held memories of many negative and many positive events throughout my freshman year, it has also been a place where I have grown closer with some of my forever friends. Whether it be taking photos, debriefing crazy situations, running to the floors below to hang out with friends, or climbing up and down eleven flights for each of our twenty eight fire alarms, I have spent these moments with girls that have changed my outlook on the world for the better. I hope that one day I will be showing my kids the endless photos of my best friends and I in the stairwell on Halloween, before nights out, for game days, on sorority formals, and the many moments that we wanted to capture for the future.

While something as a stairwell might seem irrelevant to most people, this location has changed my life. It started as the place I would go to hide when I was anxious, to the place I experienced my first heartbreak, to the spot I began to heal, to the go-to phone call destination, to the place where some of my favorite memories with my best friends are documented. Below I've attached a series of memories this stairwell has created, it's truly a sign of my freshman year and the person I have become these past nine months.

Lots of Love,

Lolo