Coming to college can make you feel like you’re a fish out of water. You’re in a completely different community, whether you’re coming from down the street or across the country. It can be hard to call this ew unfamiliar place your home. It can be scary to reach out to groups of strangers in the hope of finding an accepting community. What if you get rejected? I felt all of these same feelings as a college freshman, and now, looking back as a senior, I want to give anyone feeling this way some advice. To do this, I will turn to an unlikely place: flowers.
Last year, I got to visit the Toledo Museum of Art to see the guest artist exhibit, “Community” by Rebecca Louise Law. The exhibit is pressed flowers suspended from the ceiling to the floor. This room full of uprooted flowers, taken from their roots and brought somehwere new, can relate to the feeling of the college student’s exeperience.
The flowers were made up of the ones from the local Toledo area and the rest were from Law’s private flower collection.
Law’s flower collection contains blooms from all over the world that she presses to preserve their beauty.
It’s easy to feel out of place in your new college community. But, just like the blooms in Rebecca Louise Law’s art display, college students come from all over the world, and combine your unique attributes together, to create beauty and harmony.
There are tons of opportunities on college campuses, like student organizations, greek life, and clubs to find a new community. Many of them have information that’s just a google search or an email away. Don’t hold yourself back from taking advantage of these opportunities. Branch out, plant some new roots, and find a beautiful place to bloom.