I sit here after having been back on campus for a couple weeks now and I am so happy to be home. I knew that going back for my sophomore year would be a
completely different experience than last year, and it has been. I wanted to take the time to reflect a bit on what it’s been like to return to a place a second time.
First off, familiarity is key. Last year, walking around the first few week everything was so new: not just the people and faces I saw, but every building, every road, every
site on campus was something I had to mentally store and remember for the next time I encountered it. Now, I walk around campus with a certain type of pride and joy
that my feet have walked these paths that wind through the plains before, and though I have changed, Auburn still remains slightly untouched since the last time
thousands of students filled its campus limits.
Familiarity extends to the faces I see as I walk around too. I find myself excited to come out of class and walk across campus because I know I have the slight chance of
running into a familiar face, hoping to renew those connections I made my freshman year.
Yet as familiar as Auburn and people is to me, I know there’s still room for new discoveries, opportunities, and people in my life.
I’ve had classes in buildings I’ve never been in before, I’ve met new people, changed my major, even live in a new apartment. Last year was a year of solely beginnings,
and this year is a mixture of picking up where we’ve left off and expanding and growing within myself, my relationships with my old and new friends, strengthening my
academic career, and my involvement in school.
There is something so special about coming back to a place you love, but most importantly a place you call home with it’s own family built in.
I can only hope that the freshmen (if you’re a freshman reading this, hi!!!!) learn to love this school as much as all the people in the Auburn community do. And if you are
a freshman, sophomore, honestly whoever, reading this, I want to reassure you and that the adjustment to campus puts you in a mental state of a lot of change and
transition, and it is okay to take a step back from the people surrounding you in order to take a step forward for yourself. Of course, I love seeing my friends and
spending time with the people I love, but if you need to take an hour or two to cram some Netflix in by yourself or to just be, that’s perfectly OKAY!
Coming back a second time not only reaffirms the changes I knew I needed to make for this year and it feels so good to be back on campus with the motivation to be
the B E S T that I can be.
War eagle to being happily at home, to new beginnings, to the familiarity of everything, to everything in store, to the memories, and to Auburn itself.