What College Taught Me: Pizza, Scooters, and Seasonal Depression

Introduction: How I Ended Up This Way

My name is Hannah Catherine Martinson, and I am not your average American. I was born in New Mexico and raised in Belgium. (For those of you who never paid attention in Geography, Belgium is the country next to France and Germany.) We're a really little country. You probably know us cause we make the bomb ass waffles. If you've never been to Belgium, trust me- they're fantastic.

The whole reason my family and I ended up in Belgium was that my dad was in the United States Air Force. We were stationed overseas with the military, moved to Kansas, then ended up back in Belgium- which, trust me, no one in my family was happy about. Belgium will suck the life out of you. It's cold, windy, rainy, it smells like pee and cigarette smoke, but worst of all, Belgium will make you fat. There is a plethora of good food. Bread, chocolate, waffles, coffee- uhg. You will get so fat, but you will have no one to blame but yourself.

Growing up I always thought I was different from other American kids cause I lived in Europe. They thought I was weird, which was true, but not for the reasons they thought. Turns out, I was just an awkward lil' shit in grade school.

I was always ashamed when people asked where I was from. During the summer after my freshman year of high school, I went to Track camp at the University of Minnesota, and I remember vividly some girls asking me where I lived.

"O-M-G, you are SO much fun! Where do you live?"

I smiled, at that point in my life I thought I was exceptional, I grew up in Europe! I was cultured as fuck!

"I live in Belgium! I flew all the way over here to go to this Track camp! The University of Minnesota is my dream school!" I gushed, I thought that they would share the same passion that I did.

All three girls looked at each other and laughed. "That is so weird."

I remember how much that hurt me. My dad served in the military, he was doing important, hard work for the country- I was so proud of him, and I couldn't understand why they didn't see that. That's when I started to lie. The next time someone asked me where I was from, I told them I was from Minneapolis. This was a pretty good alternative, I made a ton of friends, and my plan worked- until it didn't. I hadn't really thought my lie all the way through, and when I was asked where I went to high school- you can imagine how that went. It was awfully embarrassing. When I told my parents that I was lying about where I lived, they were very upset with me,

"You should never be ashamed of where you've grown up, Hannah. It makes you very unique."

At that point, I didn't care how unique I was, I just wanted to be a normal American kid.  To make things even more complicated, I was a "weird" American, but my mom was also from the United Kingdom, meaning I had dual citizenship- making me even weirder, or cooler- I guess it depends on how you look at it. Eventually, I grew out of my shyness and realized that it's pretty frickin' sweet to grow up in another country.

So, yeah, that's about it. Now you know a little bit about me, and some of my experiences leading up to college. I feel like we can move on with this book. I've had some really scary, dangerous, and upsetting experiences this year, along with some wonderful life-altering ones. Enjoy the journey.

Lesson One: If you're going to lie, at least think it through first.