Am I growing up?

So this past Friday night I decided to stay in. Not because I had something to do Saturday morning, or was particularly tired from the week, but just because I wanted to. Which wouldn't be a big deal except that I did the same thing the previous week. I'm pretty sure you'd have to go back to the 1990's to find the last time I purposefully stayed in two Friday nights in a row. And again, it wasn't that I had anything pressing to do, I just wanted to get up early, get ahead on some work, do some laundry, and get a good workout in. That's not even the half of it though. Here are a few other things I've started doing in the past two weeks for the first time in my life:

1. Eating a healthy breakfast every day - granola bar, fruit, and yogurt
2. Waking up a little extra early to read the morning paper
3. Actually doing homework
4. Hosting a group of people and offering more than a bottle of Beam and a case of Natural Light. I invited my Learning Team over for cocktails on Friday afternoon, and you should have seen the spread I put out.

This all leads to one question: What is happening to me?

Even after only a few weeks, I think Charlottesville as changed me. B-school has changed me. I'm not sure what it is, but I'm liking it. It's like for the first time I can see what I really want for myself in the future and, more importantly, I have the tools to get me there. The craziest part of it is though, now I am more than willing to make the commitment to go after that. This new-found drive is something I have never felt before, and I'm sure that is a product of Darden and its community.

Darden is a completely different environment than I've ever been in. First, a lot of people in my class are married or engaged, and many of children. I'm still trying to figure out how to navigate a place where many of my peers have families of their own. Not only that, these people are obsessed with success but still interesting, friendly, and social. I don't think I've met many people that had both those characteristics before (in my previous experience, success-obsessed people are usually extremely boring). Whatever it is, my classmates are convincing me that I too can be driven and not have to completely change myself. And that's why I don't feel bad at all staying in on a Friday night for no good reason.

Now, before I get too wishy-washy trying to explain my feelings, that was just Friday. Thursday and Saturday nights were completely different stories. Thursday was the section social events where first-years party with there second-year section counterparts. In section E we used this as an excuse to have a keg race, first-years vs. second-years. All I can say after doing my first keg race in three years is this: I've still got it. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was a major factor in the first-year's victory. And I base that mostly on the headache I had Friday morning. Then on Saturday, I finally got to experience college football as a student at a big state school. And it was awesome. To break down: tailgate, food, beer, game (w/ flask, obviously), UVA crushing Richmond, more food, bar hopping on the Corner, then back to my place in Ivy Gardens. All with my classmates (mostly the single ones).

So, in other words, I have changed, but maybe not that much.