I remember in past years, before I got to the stage in life where I would start applying for colleges, when I used to make fun of CSUB out the butt. I told myself that I would never go to either Bakersfield College(community college) or CSUB just because, well, they were in Bakersfield. When I first came to this city the summer before my 8th grade year, I felt like there could be no place worse than Bakersfield. I was a city boy with a restless body that wanted to be active. I grew up in Long Beach and I was used to surfing at Huntington and Redondo Beach every morning. I was never exposed to triple digit weather nor have I ever sweat so much while standing in a stationary position IN THE SHADE ever in my entire life, even though I did nothing that caused my body to be physically active.It was hard. For the first few years, I hated this city. Not really hate, but I told myself I could not live here for the rest of my life nor would I ever plan on doing so. But now that I've grown up and matured alot more, I've learned to love this city and the few things it has to offer. "I've accepted it as home" is something I can say without feeling ashamed anymore. What I also don't feel ashamed about is the fact that I attend CSUBakersfield.
CSUB may not have the biggest campus, the most students attending...or whatever, but who cares? We go to college to what? Connect with other students, find a community of people that share the same or similar intrests, get a college degree, live in the dorms, learn life long skills and much more right? I used to think that CSUB would never offer something like that, but APU would, or Whitworth, Cal Poly, UCSD, CSUF...ect. But I've grown up and realized that going to different colleges doesn't make an EXTREME difference. Unless God specifically led you there and said clearly He want's you to attend that school. But all in all, each college is going to offer each and everyone of us, no matter which college we attend, the same things. Well, not everything will be the same, but alot of the ideas and concept of college will be similar.
What I'm trying to say is that I've learned that staying in town for college isn't as bad as I thought it'd be, especially in a city like Bakersfield. I'll have my chances in the future to go to different colleges/schools out of the city when the time comes (ie. Juilliard).
CSUB isn't bad at all. In fact, I love it already, though it's only been 3 day's since I've started school...:)
