I have dreamed about coming to Wake since eighth grade. Ask anyone from my hometown and they can tell you. I painted Wake Forest as a utopia in my mind. It was the only school I applied to and I imagined the transition being smoother.
My life at home was perfect when I left: a boyfriend of 6 months (who I would, of course, continue to date despite a 473-mile distance), a wonderful friend group, and an extremely close-knit family. In high school, I established a great relationship and reputation with peers and teachers. I was very content with my life back in Pennsylvania on every end.
During the first month of Wake, I have cried probably more than 25 times. To be completely honest, I had many phone calls discussing transferring and how I can’t seem to find my place here. It has been an insanely difficult adjustment being taken out of my comfort zone. I often still don’t feel like myself or know what I’m “supposed” to be doing. Though it is getting so much better with each day and I have changed my attitude toward a more positive one, I struggled a lot these past weeks.
One of the things I heard most from my friends in the past month is that they feel like everyone else is doing completely fine except them. Everyone else must be thriving and have whole new friend groups and love the place they are at because that’s what is portrayed on social media. Freshman (and anyone really) post pictures where they look like they have it all figured out and they are perfectly content. I know we hear it all the time that social media isn’t “real” or it “doesn’t give the full story,” but I didn’t truly come to terms with that until I posted my own picture two weeks ago from a party at Wake.
I posted a picture smiling and laughing with my friend and someone from home commented, “You look like you’re THRIVING!” The morning of that picture I had called my mom crying about a breakup and later that day I cried again at night over homesickness. Yes, we post pictures where we look like we are “thriving,” but you can never assume that is the whole story. My advice to freshmen everywhere is not to think everyone on social media or everyone besides you has it all figured out. We’re all putting our best face forward; everyone has their own problems behind the scenes. So next time you look at Instagram and see a post of someone “thriving,” you should know they probably miss home a little bit too. And they probably wish they could cuddle their dog or watch a movie with a friend from home. It’s a super hard transition and no one has it completely figured out.