Four years ago, if you were to tell me that I would be in a totally different college with totally different people in my life and a totally different major, I wouldn’t have believed you. Four years ago, I was headed into my senior year with all intents and purposes of becoming an elementary school teacher in a school far away from my home in the South. I want to let you in on a little secret that no one really tells you when you’re a senior in high school: It’s more than okay to change your mind about college. Whether you’re unhappy with yourself, the friends you’ve made, the grades you’ve been getting – it doesn’t matter. What matters is your health and happiness, and if it means transferring out of a school you thought was perfect for you, then just remember that that’s perfectly acceptable and okay.
I discovered my college wasn’t for me when it was March of 2014 and I was a month and a half away from finishing my freshman year of college. I can remember sitting on my bed at home about to drive back down to my college after finishing spring break and saying to my mom, “I don’t want to go back .” That’s when it hit me, I wasn’t happy there and it wasn’t the place for me.
Transferring is complicated and annoying and exhausting , trust me I know. But I can tell you something: I will never regret my decision to transfer out of a school I knew wasn’t right for me. Sure, would it have been easier to just stay there for the next three years, get my degree, and get the hell out of there? Probably, but it would’ve been giving up.
As I arrived on PhilaU campus on August 17th, 2016 I was hit with the realization that I was going to meet all new people, have all new classes, and have to navigate around an area that I was unfamiliar with. It was intimidating. (Also not to mention PhilaU doesn’t do a great job with integrating their transfer students into the school).
But transferring is, to be cheesy, what you make of the experience. It’s hard work, it’s going to be a little bit more difficult than you realize, but you have to do what your gut is telling you. My gut told me three years ago I wasn’t in the right place, and I couldn’t have been more right. It’s been over two months at PhilaU, my new school, but I can already tell that I made the right decision to come here. It’s been a difficult process, and sometimes I call my mom just to vent about all my problems, but absolutely, 100% worth it.