I was eager to move into college. Yes, I was nervous, but the timing felt right. Excitement was electrifying until the energy and traditional college freshman nerves morphed into mild panic. Especially when my move in date shifted a week earlier, before all my peers.
I always had constant exposure to college and higher education. I grew up watching my father study for two master’s degrees. Just as those were finished, my mother went back to earn her PhD. I have been incredibly fortunate to watch my parents keep going back to school. My mother is a nurse practitioner at a university. So, I was used to seeing her in a student health center, working as a professor or administrating a program.
Needless to say, I was prepared. As a chronic obsessor, I did my research, stocked my amazon cart full, laid out my budget and chose my packing materials. I did everything early and thoroughly. However, I was not prepared to be accepted onto the school speech team. In turn, I was invited to move in early for “work week.”
Being prepared “enough,” I agreed. Here is a little reflection on the whirlwind of an unexpected summer turn around.
- Processing is hard
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I spent pretty much all of my summer working as an overnight camp counselor a state away from my home. Less than 12 hours after arriving home from my beloved summer job, I was whisked away to a week of family vacation in Arizona. After that I had three days to complete my “before college doctors appointments” before leaving the state again for a lake house girls weekend. I was on the girls’ weekend when I received my unexpected “move in early” invitation.
I decided to do it, but could not comprehend the fact that I would actually be leaving home for good.
Honestly, I thought it would be the same with a later move in date. Something about that “week till move in” time triggers the panic. It doesn’t matter how ready you are to leave home, starting college is such a huge life adjustment, and it’s hard to get used to.
- Chances are, you haven’t pack everything you need
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I am absolutely in love with packing. Packing cubes is an art form to me. As a camp counselor, I am quite familiar with gathering all my things and planning what to bring. I thought college packing would be a breeze!
It’s a fresh start! So just bring the stuff you use daily … right?
Wrong.
A lot of what we use daily, are shared appliances with family, school, communities, etc. To complicate things further, dorms are tiny.
That stove you use to boil water? Replace it with a kettle.
The microwave your family uses? Buy a smaller one for yourself.
Everything you need in the bathroom, splayed over the sink? Get used to shared bathrooms and caddies.
And so on and so on!
Every time I thought I had what I needed, I realized I was missing something vital. Honestly I still kind of wish I brought my indoor trampoline (haha).
- Friendships
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It’s a little difficult to make friends when hardly anyone is on campus, but its also hard to make friends when literally everyone is on campus.
Moving in early left me to bond with a smaller group of people, and it was great. I got to walk into the chaos of everyone else moving in with a couple of people I knew, right next to me.
When the chaos did happen, I was able to remain calm and focus on making friends. I got to avoid processing the whole “major life change” and moving situations at the same time as them.
I have great friends I made both before and after there were thousands of people on campus. Luckily, both were easier with the extra time I had to gather myself.
- Adapting
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Life is crazy. It will never not be. I’ve said it a bunch and I’ll say it again, college is a major life change. I don’t know what it is like for those who didn’t grow up visiting their parents at universities, but for me at least it was easy to overlook how big a step this was.
The extra week was a crucial time for me to process, form connections and pull my thoughts together. I didn’t have to deal with a hectic move in week, and instead I got to know my campus and speech team. I left my old support system so quickly, and while I still miss the time I had planned for my friends, I didn’t leave them forever. Life is a speeding bus, and it was going to hit me anyway.
I was terrified, but that extra week was a fantastic shallow end to ease my way into the college pool. I don’t think I would ever take it back.