The class was stressed, confused, and were reaching their limit with the professor. His vague abstract teaching tactics were extreme and unreasonable to the students. This situation raised to a point where the young adults had to get the information from another teacher.  

“I think the difficult part was having a teacher that doesn’t teach exactly the way that you need and is stuck in their old ways of the academic world,” Kalegh Storey said. “They’re not very open to suggestions or learning how to improve themselves So it just turns into a daily struggle and almost fight to try and get that education that you need.”

Storey is a 21-year-old senior attending Western Michigan University. Her college experience has shaped who she has become and the journey through the four years. Storey’s transition from Skyline High School to Western Michigan University went swimmingly.

The freedom at the college level allowed Storey to branch out from the norm of high school and select her schedule along with the courses she was interested in studying.

“It gave me time to just have my brain more relaxed in between classes, versus having like, a six to seven hour day,” Storey said. “And just like you can have like a fatigue school day by the end of that. So I feel like this is a more sustainable way for learning for me.”

Aside from the academic aspect of college, Storey also had to adjust living on her own.  Already being very independent before college, Storey already knew the basics of feeding herself regularly and doing her laundry. However one of her struggles was living without her brother, mother, or father.

“I actually missed my family a lot,” Storey said. “I think for me, especially the first year was tough trying to figure out my proper role and the space I needed to give myself from both family members and college and trying to determine what I want to do next. I don’t want to go too far away from anyone.”

Having a roommate was a very new experience for Storey. It was the first time in her life where she had to share a room and live with another person. One of her first roommates had a drastically different sleeping schedule from Storey and would keep Storey awake talking on the phone at until 3 a.m. This roommate has also tampered with Storey’s personal items.

“I had a roommate who threw away my food once,”  Storey said. “It was a spring salad. I took it out of the garbage into a plastic bag and confronted her saying, ‘did you throw away my salad?’ She wouldn’t look at me and kept looking at the floor and was like, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know how, how it ended up in the garbage.’ Then she passive-aggressively texted me later: ‘I don’t like accusations.’”

Juggling both her personal life and academic life was a hassle for Storey. She continually finds herself missing her dance career. Her favorite genres consisting of jazz and contemporary when studying for an extensive period of time.

Storey observed quite a change among the people in the area. The vast majority of the students and faculty were predominantly conservatives. Storey noticed this difference after living in Ann arbor her whole life.  “It’s like stepping into another environment,” Storey said. “Than the liberal bubble of what Ann Arbor is.”

Before choosing Western Michigan University, Storey had only a small idea of what the school was like. She made way to visit Western in the middle of a snow storm during her senior year. The experience she had wasn’t the best, yet she was still attracted to the friendly atmosphere of the faculty and student body.

“You always wonder if you’re going to truly enjoy the school and if it’s worth the money, because you can look at the school on paper and you can see everything that they have organization wise, but you never know what it’s like until you’re actually like, truly in it,” Storey said. “So you could think that your dream school is what you want it to be. But a lot of the time it doesn’t turn out to be that way until you live there for a year.”

Looking back at her growth as a senior and the accomplishments she has made, Storey has no regrets about her decision to go to Western Michigan University. She didn’t have a lot of outside influences towards her decision so she went with her gut.

“Don’t overthink it,” Storey said. “Just don’t try and stress out too much during your freshman year. Just go in and do your best. Try not to have too many expectations. Don’t be afraid to meet new people either.”