Michelle Anne Dueñas Nakaji
Editor-In-Chief, www.vitaminOC.com

Five years ago, I reluctantly started a new journey and moved to the beautiful city of Fullerton.  CSUF was a different place at that time and I was a different person.  It’s true what they say, home is where the heart is.  During that first year, my heart was everywhere else but Fullerton.  Wherever there was warmth and comfort, I went.  I drove to UC Riverside and UC Irvine 2-3 times a week and was off to UC San Diego and UCLA on the weekends or home to the feared and jeered Inland Empire.  Traveling to see my friends on their home turfs was an amazing experience – it’s probably why I know those areas/campuses so well.  Fullerton and CSUF were not my friends, but they desperately needed to be.

Maybe it was all in my head.  Perceptions can easily create realities for us.  My first year as a student at CSUF and a resident of Fullerton was a disaster.  Everything seemed to go wrong.  I went to student orientation and throughout the entire day, I tried conversing with people around me and I’d get one word answers and that impatient foot tap that begged the question, “are we done here?”.  The same situations seemed to spill over into my first semester classes.  I found a few people that I could sit next to in class, but of course as soon as class was over, they’d run to their cars and fight to get onto the 57 freeway.  The “cool kids” in class gabbed about frat parties, frat boys, GLAM, their luxury cars and expensive clothing endlessly.  I don’t even want to tell you what happened when I drove through Lot E in my 1994 red Nissan Sentra that stalled when it was in reverse and occasionally at stop-signs.  Was this the OC or was this The OC???  I was miserable.

Four years ago, I moved back to good ol’ Rialto, CA and have been a CSUF commuter ever since.  Second year was the REAL beginning of my journey.  I was determined to not become the typical CSUF commuter so I got involved on campus and took the time to explore Fullerton a little.  What changed?! My heart grew fonder and Fullerton/CSUF finally became my home, even though I don’t live there!  I was able to find roots of who I used to be and evolve that experience to build a new future for myself.  I found a community of amazing friends that are supportive of my interests and accompany me on adventures of curiosity from trying local restaurants, checking out art exhibits, or geocaching through the cracks and crevices of the area.  A group of friends from the best student organization on campus, Phi Beta Lambda (not a fraternity, but the largest and premier student business organziation in the world!) that I am proud and excited to have founded vitaminOC.com with.

Together, we will work to bring YOU, the CSUF commuter, the OC community member, or whomever you are, a little warmth and comfort to a place that you CAN call home.  Whether it be Fullerton or any other corner of the OC, we will do the exploring for you and test things out and heck, sometimes, we may even invite you along for the ride!  Whether you live on campus or commute everyday, we hope that our blog will be your daily dose of nutrients (or vitamins, ahem) to help get you more engaged in the CSUF community and the greater OC community at large.  Invest some of yourself in this area and this experience…when you do, it will be AMAZING.  I promise! Welcome to vitaminOC.com!

Random pieces of me: 5th year Business Admin Student @ CSUF; lover of FBLA-PBL, karaoke, cultures, exploring, community events, stickers, concerts and John Mayer; delusional enough to believe that I will change the world, somehow;  260,000+ miles on my 2000 Honda Accord and it’s still going strong.  GO HONDA!; and my room is Nickelodeon lime green!

I would love to hear your story, your thoughts and your ideas!  Feel free to contact me anytime by email: michelle[at]vitaminOC.com, on Facebook , Twitter , or my personal blog.  See ya around!