YIKES fall semester has started… how did summer fly that fast? Right now I can assure you I am SO excited to be back in Lawrence, but a year ago times were very different. Going into my freshman year I was nervous and extremely anxious. I was moving nine hours away to a place where I knew absolutely no one. Looking back on it now, freshman year was the most exciting year of my life and what comes with the ups are the downs- and by downs I means falls.
The first time I fell was a about a week into my first semester freshman year, I was already feeling the homesickness and was not easing into college as smoothly as I hoped. I was walking to the bus stop to start of another day of classes when boom! I fell. I was horrified. I was completely embarrassed, although now looking back on it I’m not even sure anyone saw me. As if the cut on my leg wasn’t enough I looked down to find my iPhone shattered. I instantly wanted to cry, I hated school, I hated the adjustment, and as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I hated being so far away from my mom. As soon as I got off the bus, I found a quiet space on campus and called my mom crying telling her I just wanted to go home. She never did let me go home, but she did fix my iPhone. (Thanks Mom!)
Fast forward to the end of my Freshman year: I had made it a whole year in Lawrence and things were really on the upswing for me, I was loving school, I was loving my friends and I was really happy. After having a last minute study crunch in the library I was headed to my first final of my second semester of college. The rainy grey day had done nothing to damper my mood, I was soaking up my last few days in Lawrence and happy to spending it with my closest friends. Of course my clumsily ways seemed to get the best of me again as I slipped and fell right on Jayhawk Boulevard. This time I knew people had seen me and this fall did hurt a little, but instead of calling my mom crying my first reaction was to groupchat all my friends and laugh out loud.
Yes I fell, yes it hurt, yes, people saw me, but come on it’s a little hilarious when people fall. You know you’ve watched it on YouTube. I realized looking back on it freshman year was a big adjustment for me, an adjustment I didn’t really see coming. I had moved around a lot as a military brat and I never thought college would be that hard. But whatever doubts you have early on, don’t give up and don’t go home as cliché as it sounds I promise you it will get better. You will make friends and you will have the best time of your life. And as some stranger wisely told me, “It’s okay everyone falls around here.” So get out there with your model strut and don’t be afraid to fall.