Going away from home and being thrown into a place where you don’t know anyone is a
massive adjustment—it’s the first time away from family for so many of us. But the reason I
have had, and continue to have, such a wonderful and positive experience at university is entirely
because of the people I am surrounded by. Going from knowing absolutely no one to having a
family away from family is truly a beautiful thing.
Like so many people, I was really nervous that I wouldn’t make any friends in university. Before
that knock on my door, I was just sitting in my new dorm room, trying to figure out how to make
an empty space feel personal and figuring out how I was going to survive this next chapter.
Then came the knock. When I opened the door, it was my neighbor from right across the hall. I
had only caught a brief glimpse of him on move-in day, but he introduced himself and brought
along another guy from our floor. The three of us, along with a couple of others, decided to
check out the first-year orientation events together. We ended up at karaoke night in the quad,
and ever since that evening, the group of us have been inseparable.
Everything from that moment on became a group activity. I don’t think I ever had a moment
where I felt truly alone. From heading to the dining hall together,hosting movie nights in
crowded dorm rooms, hours of Mario Kart, late-night KD making in the loungeand renting board
games from the library to play for hours on end, our lives suddenly collided.
The underlying reality was that we were all relying on each other to make the bumpy transition
into adulthood and independence a little easier. In the process of figuring out how to live away
from family, we accidentally created a little family of our own. There were plenty of nights
where everything was just fun and easy-going, but there were also nights filled with long, late-
night talks about school, heartbreak, and everything in between. Those moments of shared vulnerability made our friendship dynamic stronger than I ever could have imagined.
Looking back, the real magic of those late-night conversations and hallway laughs isn’t just that
they made the loneliness disappear—it’s how quietly and fundamentally they changed who I am.
Stepping out of my comfort zone to open that door taught me a resilience I didn’t know I had. I
used to think independence meant figuring everything out alone, but my friends showed me that
true growth happens in community. They’ve challenged my perspectives, helped me navigate the sharp edges of homesickness and self-doubt, and taught me how to lean on others without losing
my own footing.
That shift in perspective has completely redefined what the rest of my university years look like.
What started out as a terrifying transition into the unknown has transformed into something
entirely different. Now, looking ahead at the rest of my degree, I don’t feel that quiet dread of
being away from home anymore. Instead, I look at the years ahead with a deep sense of
excitement, comforted by the fact that I have my people by my side through it all—turning what
could have just been a chapter of my life into a period I know I will never want to end.