Freshman Fifteen

From Wikipedia : The Freshman fifteen refers to an amount (somewhat arbitrarily set at fifteen pounds) of weight often gained during a student's first year at college.

When I moved away from home to attend college in the US, I felt completely and utterly lost. Not only was I thousands of miles away from home, I had no idea how to cook and clean as well. My room would always be a mess, piles of clothes littered on the floor and books scattered everywhere. I was always used to having someone clean up after me. One day, after class, while getting ready to go out, I smelled something funny in the air. I frantically searched around my room, only to find an old box of pizza with a rat inside. Of course, I screamed and asked one of my guy friends to help me out. Needless to say, instead of going out, I stayed in and cleaned my room. Disgusting right?

I heard the exact same scream from my sister over the phone when she recieved the latest picture that I had sent. It was me in a little blue velvet dress, ready to go out. Unfortunately, I was not so little. From weighing around 96 lbs, I became a much heavier 115 lbs. This might not sound like a lot, but I can guarrantee that it is quite disturbing, especially if 10 lbs of your new weight is mostly on your face. I never learned how to cook, so I resorted to fast food and cheap Mexican fare. Thanks to the numerous burritos I gorged on, I gained a total of 19 lbs. I was a victim of the Freshman Fifteen plus four more lbs. I eventually lost the weight when I started cooking my own food and exercising. Looking back at all my classmates' old pictures, I see that a lot of them were victims of the dreaded Freshman Fifteen as well. Of course, there were the lucky few who got through college unscathed.

There are no pictures of me during my freshman year of college. I've deleted them, "misplaced" them... freshman year is definitelysomething I'd like to forget. Most definitely.