My freshman year at UT felt like one long, endless, horrible day. It was my backup plan to say the least, and a place I ended up due more to my parent’s desires than my own. I actually paid for housing at A&M! (dark days for me)- Austin was not a place I wanted to be; it was a dirty hippie town with too much pop culture for me to handle. I spent my days dreaming of the east coast, of the beach, just wanting to get away. Between the “foreign car drivin’ [frat] dudes”, their “road rage attitudes”, and a pretty nasty oral infection: my freshman year went a LOT like Blake Shelton’s day in “Some Beach”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTT2LEyjdC4
[Editor’s note: Shelton’s YouTube account apparently does not allow this video to be embedded in posts published on sites like this one.]
Shockingly, once I left my dorm room and ventured out into the UT atmosphere- aside from just going to class and back- I realized maybe I was being a little close-minded. I joined a spirit organization on campus, the Texas Angels (also very much instigated by my mother, she’s very persuasive), and began to branch out a little more. I found my niche in an otherwise overwhelming city and I have gained several close friends over the past year, I definitely wouldn’t move to the east coast now, even if I had the opportunity.
Everyone told me how incredible Austin was and how much I was going to love UT before I left, but I was way too fixated on a some beach fantasy to even give it a shot. Every time I listen to this song I want to go back in time, grab myself by the shoulders and scream STOP AND SMELL THE ROSES! THE BEACH SUCKS IT’S JUST SAND IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES AND JELLYFISH AND THE OCCASIONAL WARDROBE MALFUNCTION! Blake Shelton was clearly having a rough day, but out of that came a really catchy song with a very happy vibe that makes me think even Shelton knows he’ll feel better tomorrow.
I’m not sure why this song still makes me think of my freshman year of college, maybe because I’d still love to live a life in constant vacation-mode, or because you can’t get take a trip down 35 without getting honked at by some road-rager at least once, but regardless, I turn the radio up every time it comes on. As I’ve grown to love and engage with the beautiful city of Austin, I’ve also grown to realize that Austin is a city where I can truly be myself, I can interact with great and interesting people, I can even drink a margarita and I don’t have to worry about when the last time I applied sunscreen was. ATX is my beach.