Coming to a school thirty minutes away from home did not seem like it would be that big of an adjustment. Not to mention that I was coming here along with thirty other girls from my high school. Yet, the transition to life at college has been a journey so far. I’ve taken the metro to D.C. by myself, gotten covered in paint at a huge concert, and gotten background checked for a volunteer tutoring job. So far, so good (and kind of weird).
At this point, we’ve pretty much gotten past the regular meeting a fellow freshman questions, “Where are you from?” “Where did you go to high school?” “Where do you live?”, and are now on to actually makingfriends. I’ve met a bunch of people who are like me (eager to get involved, nervous about exams) and some that are pretty unlike me (math geniuses). It’s been exciting to meet new people and learn about their backgrounds after being in a sort of “bubble” throughout my high school life. I never really thought that I would meet people who grew up in a different country, or speak a foreign language fluently but those people are my new classmates.
Navigating to my classes during the first week was definitely an adventure. I highly underestimated the travel time from Route 1 to the Art/Sociology building but now I finally feel like I’ve got it down. Another thing that was definitely surprising was the huge amount of money I’ve spent on food. It’s very hard to ignore the lure of SweetGreen on the bottom of my apartment building when I know I should be using the groceries that I bought the day before.
At this point, one month in, I feel almost adjusted to the life of a college student. My advice to my fellow freshmen at this point? I know it may be awkward, but it really helps to reach out and ask someone to goget froyo or go to that meeting of the club you’re interested in. The only way to have a full college experience is to take risks and try new things, and I’m going to attempt to do that too. Performance gymnastics club here I come!