This past week I attended the Marist women's soccer game at UAlbany, which worked out really well since I was heading home for the weekend anyway. It may be surprising but prior to attending the soccer game I have never really been on the UAlbany campus before, even though I live less than a half hour away from campus and drive by it all the time. It was great to finally see the campus and get a sense of what is like beyond the small portion that I have seen just by driving by it. While watching the soccer game, it reminded me and brought back good memories of when my sister and I were younger, as she used to play soccer. I remember going to her games and practicing with her in the backyard of our house to help her be prepared for the games as well as playing just for fun when when she did not have any games.
During the game, it was interesting having my college team playing against my hometown team, especially since I have grown up supporting UAlbany athletics, as well as Siena, the arch-rival of Marist. Even though I am a Marist student it was still a little difficult rotting against a team that I have supported all of my life, especially my hometown team. Either way regardless of the outcome, I would win as either my local team or my current college team would win the game. UAlbany ended up winning the game 2-0, but Marist did not go down without a fight.
The next day I met up with one of my friends who is a student at UAlbany, and she gave me a tour of the campus since I had not seen the campus. It was very strange coming from a small middle school, high school, and college, then being on such a large campus as UAlbany which has around 13.000 undergrads compared to 5,500 at Marist. By touring UAlbany it brought back memories of when I was still in high school and touring colleges, and hoping I would find the right college for me. Even though the campus was a lot larger than what I am used to, the tour was not as stressful as the tours I did while in high school since I am in college and understand what college is like. Additionally I noticed that there were some differences between Marist and UAlbany besides the size of the schools, such as UAlbany having signs and the names of all the buildings on them while Marist does not have any. With a state University like UAlbany I noticed that the architecture is not as appealing as Marist, and it seems as if UAlbany is not as concerned with the aesthetic appeal as Marist.