May 2025. The final spring of high school. One week till my graduation. I remember sitting at the dining room table, having dinner with my family like it was any other Tuesday night. I could tell my dad was nervous. I heard something along the lines of “The company wants me to transfer to the Texas office,” and “It’s a significant promotion,” and “It is more responsibility, a better position for my future”.
I remember waiting for a “but.” The “but we haven’t decided yet,” or “but we’re still thinking about it.” Instead, he just looked at me, and I understood that this wasn’t a conversation about whether or not it would happen. It was a conversation telling me it would. No one really prepares you for how a single conversation can flip your entire life plan upside down.
Graduation came, and summer began. But so did the moving boxes stacked in the hallway and the “FOR SALE” sign planted in my front yard. I had grown up in the same house on Lakewood Avenue my whole life. It was the only home I had ever known. The realization that soon I was going to be in a completely different environment finally started to set in. It all became impossible to ignore. I would stay in Pittsburgh to go to school at Pitt while my parents sold our home and moved halfway across the country. I remember opening my laptop to look at dorm room checklists and meal plans, only to close it ten minutes later, unable to focus on any of it. Every tab I opened felt like yet another question I didn’t have an answer to yet.
Suddenly, the independence I was gaining from going to college no longer felt like something I could be excited about. It felt like abandonment. I spent most of that summer angry. Angry at myself, at my parents, and at the situation. I kept having to remind myself that change is inevitable. But it’s sometimes (and in this case) the driving force that keeps us going.
Change can be a really good thing. It can open your eyes to possibilities you never would have considered. Every experience I’ve had this past year has helped me grow as a person and into the best version of myself. I just had to figure out how to let go of the routine I had been leaning on my whole life.
I also had to figure out what home would even mean to me now. Because when you can no longer fall back on the familiar, you are forced to move forward. There was no old bedroom to retreat to at the first sign of difficulty. If home can no longer be one specific place, maybe it can be something that’s a little more flexible. Maybe it can exist in people, in memories, and in the habits we carry with us, making lifelong friends and establishing routines that contribute to the life I have planned for myself.
Speaking of friends, the friendships I made this year are honestly unlike anything I’ve had before. There’s something really special about building connections with people who genuinely know nothing about you. My college friends don’t know the version of me that existed before this year. They only know the one I am becoming. I am definitely going to miss our walks around Schenley, trying new coffee shops (we have been LOVING Centered), and having movie nights in my dorm, but I know these four months will fly by, and we will all be back together again soon.
At the beginning of this semester, I joined a service sorority, which helped pull me out of my own head and into something bigger than myself. A few weeks ago, I accepted an e-board position with Her Campus as Marketing and Recruitment chair (yay!). If I could give one piece of advice to incoming freshmen, it would be to get involved as early as you can. Join the club that sounds interesting. Drag your friends to the interest meeting for a random organization. I am actively finding my place at Pitt and letting myself feel at home in Pittsburgh in a new way. Not as the place I grew up in, but as the place I choose to belong to now.
I recently declared my major as Media and Professional Communications on the Corporate and Community relations track with minors in Information Science and Sociology, and a certificate in Public and Professional Writing (yes, I just say communications when someone asks). While this may change, I really enjoyed the classes I have taken so far, and I am looking forward to continuing down this path.
I have learned a lot about managing my time well and holding myself accountable. Also, figuring out what interests me and what doesn’t has been very beneficial. Academically speaking, I am ready for the end of the semester and excited to take a well-deserved break. I am also looking forward to going back to my high school jobs (and feeling incredibly old), trips to the beach, seeing my high school friends, and soaking up every last UV ray.
I definitely think college has made me more independent. Not in the typical ways you might be thinking about. Yes, I can manage my schedule and do my own laundry. For me, it’s more about learning how to trust my own decisions and being comfortable with not having everything figured out right now. I am learning how to build a life that belongs to me. Looking toward sophomore year, I still don’t have it all figured out. But I’m definitely getting there.