Senior year is awesome. There I said it, I feel better ... whew. Except there is one thing nagging at me as this year comes to an end -- I feel like I missed out on a lot. I know that sounds weird, but I am one of the many "branch campus kids" here at Penn State.

That's right, I started out my college career in the frozen tundra that is Penn State Erie.

Yes, it is really cold. No, classes weren't canceled as often as you'd think. How much snow? Sometimes it was up to my waist. Yeah, I could see the lake from my dorm.

Those are the main questions I'm asked, as are other transfer students, about our satellite campus. However, I couldn't take the cold and the seclusion. I was itching to leave after two years, so I switched majors and was on my way to University Park.

It all sounded so wonderful. I had visited the campus once or twice before but was ready to experience football Saturdays and post-party stops at Canyon Pizza.

Well, it was a little different than what I had hoped for.

Remember that feeling you got freshman year? You were nervous and anxious to start college, but didn't know your way around and had your head stuck in a map half of the time? That was me, and I was mortified. I had no idea where I was going and actually managed to get lost on campus on my way to class.

So embarrassing. Anyway, I finally sucked it up and asked a friend for a tour of the campus and managed to figure the buildings out.

Unfortunately, that tour didn't give me insight into the workings of Happy Valley. How was I to know "the mall" was a strip of classrooms and not a building full of stores? And no one told me anything about the "Loop." What was that yellow string for? How do you know where the stops are? I was so confused. Thankfully, I had transferred to University Park with a bunch of other students from Erie, and we all looked stupid together.

I got the feeling after awhile that I missed out on the introduction to Penn State life other students got their freshman year. I'll never know what it was like to hang out in East Halls and play volleyball or lay out with my homework on a sunny day. That long hike to frat row from the dorms? Never did it, and though I'm not sure I'd want to do it, it'd be nice to have the opportunity.

Yet, with the few weeks I have left at Penn State, I want to accomplish what I missed out on my freshman and sophomore years.

When it's nice out, I'm going to drag my friends to East Halls to hang out and do our homework. When we get bored, we'll jump in on a game of volleyball at the sand courts.

On a Friday night, I'm going to walk to frat row and attend a party. Who am I kidding? I'm going to hang out at Café 210 with my friends. I'm 22: I don't need do to the frat scene.

While I have a feeling I missed out on the early years at University Park, I know that my first two years are something many main campus kids don't understand. The thrill of skipping class to go hang out at the beach at Lake Erie or getting the chance to be in a sorority in which you can actually remember everyone's name because there are only 40 sisters.

The memories I have from my experiences at Penn State Erie are the ones my friends and I reminisce about. They are the ones that brought us all together, and the ones that make us laugh the most.

So I didn't miss out on much by starting in Erie, but what I did miss out on, I made up with the last two years.