I had little to no interest in attending this school. I was one of those high school students who wanted to get away from it all, go to school somewhere out of state and visit home only three or four times a year.

I felt like I was trapped in a Michigan vortex, desperately trying to find any way out. I thought the only way to expand my horizons was to completely start over and attend school somewhere where no one from my high school would be. With Lake Orion, Mich. only an hour away from East Lansing, it didn’t feel far enough away for me to escape.

I applied to MSU as a backup to every other school. It was my dream to go to an out-of-state private school, like Syracuse University or Northwestern University, much to the chagrin of my parents’ wallets. When I received my acceptance to MSU and, specifically, James Madison College within MSU, I did not feel even slightly excited. It felt more like a letter of security than anything else, knowing that I could at least get as far away from home as East Lansing.

But I craved more than what I thought this university could offer me. With MSU being so close to home, I knew many students from my high school who attended here, a huge disappointment to a stubborn high schooler who wanted to escape his small-town lifestyle.

I attached a party school stigma to the university before I even stepped on campus and I believed I would not be academically challenged by the university’s curriculum, which I saw as unfavorable as a studious high school student.

Although I enjoy watching sporting events, I felt the university and its students concentrated too much on athletics and not academics. I felt as though attending MSU would just be a continuation of high school, with the same group of friends and the same small-town, high school-style drama.

My parents and I finally decided MSU was the right choice after attending a meet and greet with professors from James Madison College. Although I was glad to have decided on a school, I was not excited for what the next four years were about to offer.

Sitting in East Lansing today, I am thoroughly glad to admit that I could not have been further from the truth.

When I stepped onto campus during Welcome Weekend, I started accepting the fact that coming here was the right decision. MSU students are some of the smartest, funniest, most interesting people I have ever met.

Being in a residential college provided me with friendships with other students who had the same interests. My roommate, a hilarious and academically driven Pittsburgh native whom I met on Facebook before the year began, has become one of my closest friends. So close, in fact, that I’m living with him again next year.

The professors in James Madison College provided me with a rigorous curriculum, more challenging than I had ever seen in high school. Although the curriculum was challenging, the material and study topics were thought-provoking and enthralling, giving class discussions more depth than I had ever experienced.

The university has, from my point of view, created a fair balance of athletics and academics. Although I was disappointed when I was assigned an eight-page paper the weekend of the MSU vs. University of Michigan football game, it made me realize that my professors did not put athletics before academics.

After surviving my freshman year at MSU, I could not be happier with the decision I made to attend college here. MSU is far enough away from home that I feel like I’ve escaped my small-town background and could start anew, yet I’m still close enough to home to visit my parents and keep my mother happy.

I have no problem admitting that I currently, and forever will, bleed green.

Alex McClung is The State News opinion writer and an international relations and journalism sophomore. Reach him at mcclung3@msu.edu.