The skies opened up for what was supposed to be a nice sunny day to take a tour. Instead, it was pouring rain, and there were puddles everywhere. That was the first sight of Kent State I ever had in my entire life.

The date was April 15, 2011. My mom and I were boarding a bus at Port Authority in my hometown of Manhattan. Destination: the good old Midwest city of Akron, Ohio.

I wanted to look into coming to Kent State because I heard from my English teacher that it had an amazing journalism program. Seeing as journalism is my No. 1 passion, I wanted to pick a school that was going to allow me to explore journalism while also having the experience of leaving home.

I was visiting because I wanted to decide whether this was the campus for me; turns out, it was. The tour itself was a horrible experience, but not because of the tour guide. It was not only pouring rain, but I had sprained my ankle the week before, so I was hobbling around, jumping over puddles and wincing every time.

I took the tour with my mom, as well as my high school English teacher and her husband. My teacher and I shared an umbrella and were trying as much as possible to listen to the tour guide while my mom took in the sights.

At one point during the tour, our guide told us we had the option of going to the Student Recreation and Wellness Center, but from where we were it was far away. I took it upon myself to say that I wanted to see it, because I wasn’t on the road for 11 hours just to see half of the campus.

For my mom and I, the selling point really was the Rec because of the massive pool room, but as it turns out, I have yet to set a foot in there during the year that I have been here.

Coming to Kent made me feel like Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz,” and I realized I definitely wasn’t in New York City anymore. New York City is a place where everyone is always on the move, and people are just trying to get to where they need to go, but here it is completely different.

Here, people are always taking their time to get places, and strangers say hello and ask about your day without even knowing who you are and where you are from.

I want to thank Andrew and Kelly Christopulos for encouraging me to follow through with this column and for continuing to be a part of my journey in life.