The Anthony Reeves Experience

When people ask me about my time at the University of Tampa, I usually tell them it was the best three and a half years of my life. What I don't always tell them is that I almost never got to experience those years. If you've followed my Black Generation X stories, you've probably heard me talk about my first semester in college. It was rough. I dealt with overcrowded dorm rooms, roommate issues, culture shock, loneliness, and even found myself hitchhiking home after getting stranded in Orlando. Every new challenge made me question whether I had made the right decision by leaving Arkansas. By the end of that first semester, I wasn't just homesick. I was evaluating whether I even belonged there. Then Spring 1988 arrived. Sometimes Your Environment Changes Before Your Mind Does One of the biggest changes wasn't academic. It was my living situation. I moved out of the tiny room that had been designed for one student but housed three of us. Instead, I became roommates w...