When I was in high school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I always knew college was where I was going to go afterwards but I had no direction. I ended up deciding that I wanted to pursue a career in fashion. I applied to the best schools and dreamt of a life living in the city doing what I thought was my calling. Needless to say, my freshman year was awful. I immediately wanted to leave and found I had no passion for pursuing a career in the field I was studying. I was living alone at 18 years old in New York City and was so lost. I left a month early and finished my classes at home. I had no idea what my next steps were going to be. I knew I needed to heal and decided to take time before coming back to school.
In February 2023 I started to float around the idea of studying speech therapy and American Sign Language. I felt comfortable with the progress I’d made on myself, going to therapy, and finding the right medications, so I began looking into schools. The University of Connecticut was never a school I had in mind, while I’d heard of it and knew that it was a good school academically, I knew nothing else. I’d never even been to Connecticut before, but they had the program I was looking for, so I went for it. It wasn’t until I came up and toured in June 2023 that I knew this school was different. The campus was beautiful and my tour guides were so kind in talking with me and my mom about the school. A week later I was officially a Husky.
Housing
I think I’m the only person who was dying to live on campus. Coming in as a transfer student and an out-of-state student I wanted to be around as many people as possible. I’m an anxious introvert, so making friends and reaching out to people doesn’t come easy to me. I wanted to up my chances of meeting people to the best I could, but the universe loves to laugh at me and I ended up being waitlisted for housing. Now I love living in my apartment, but I was initially stressed and felt like I’d lost all chances of meeting people. Once the semester started though, I found people who lived in my building so it worked out. I’ve successfully made it through college so far not having to use communal bathrooms so really who’s winning?
Fall in Storrs, CT
Before I even got to Storrs, CT I had a plan. I got a job at the campus bookstore and was ready to do EVERYTHING at UConn. My first school was so wildly different from UConn, so having a college that puts on so many events for its students was mindblowing. I felt like I’d already missed out on a lot of stereotypical college experiences, so I was down to do it all. A lot of it was definitely geared toward freshmen, but I was there anyway. Coming in, I wanted to put myself out there and take advantage of everything UConn had to offer. I knew I would have to push myself out of my comfort zone because if I didn’t, I would’ve stayed in my apartment whenever I wasn’t in class. The fall semester ended up being interesting. I met people and joined clubs. I struggled in statistics. I still remember my first few weeks here texting my mom and telling her that she didn’t have to worry about me and that I was so happy. I had some rough days, which came with being 20 years old with diagnosed depression, but by the time finals came, I knew I made the right decision.
oops I changed my major
I won’t lie, the week following finals was stressful and I had a breakdown over my grades. It’s hard when you go from being in high school getting top grades to falling off. I’m still working on not letting my grades define me and getting my first semester grades back sent me into a spiral. Similar to what happened with studying fashion, I realized the requirements that came with majoring in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. One of those was another semester of statistics that almost took me out in high school and then again during the fall. I quickly contacted one of the advisors in the Communications department and within a few days, I had a whole new schedule and was listed as a Communications major. Over the break, I took a class to keep on track with graduating (hopefully) in 2026 and it was honestly such a highlight for me, as I avoided being bored for a whole month.
ok, where’s the snow?
Days leading up to when I left to come back up to Connecticut I could not breathe. This feeling didn’t go away until the second week of the semester. I’m still not sure why, but this semester started so weirdly. I felt off even though nothing had changed from the fall. It took some time to feel normal again, but I was struggling. There was a period where the sun didn’t come out for days and even though it wasn’t an extreme New England winter like I’d assumed it would be, the semester didn’t feel right until after Valentine’s Day.
new england boys
I’ve unfortunately had run-ins with some New England boys. The annoying thing is that they did nothing wrong. I don’t even think any of them qualify as being situationships. They did take my listening experience of The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift to the next level, so there’s that.
I’m officially a published writer
If you had told me at any point in my life that I’d be actively writing in college and enjoying it I would have laughed. I’ve always said that I hate writing. I can’t even journal because I get so frustrated with myself. My brain moves too quickly for writing and I struggle with getting my head and my hand to sync up. Then I went to my first Daily Campus meeting. It’s probably cheesy to say that it has changed my life, but it’s the truth. Finding the newspaper has shown me this love I have for writing. It’s given me a new space where I feel safe and everyone in the Life section where I write has been so welcoming. My first article was on a fashion display which felt so full circle. I also decided to go for it and apply for Her Campus on a whim and getting the welcome email was a shock. I’m still getting comfortable in the Her Campus space, but everyone in the UConn chapter is so nice and warm.
three and half months of summer
As I finish this, I’m less than a week out from finishing my second year of college. This whole year has been insane. I never thought I would find a place I love so much and I’m so thankful I decided to move to this little college town in Connecticut. I know I’ve only scratched the surface of what I’m going to do while at UConn and leaving for three whole months is going to feel so weird. I’m already missing this place and am eager to return for my junior year to experience even more.