Flash back to the end of September. We were picking out our new bed sets, crafting apartment décor courtesy of Pinterest, saying goodbye to our loved ones at home, and venturing out into the land of La Jolla, California. Our futures felt brighter than ever with the promise of a new start and fresh ocean air.
How little we knew about what was in store for us.
No, this isn’t an account of any horror story; it’s actually more of a love story. A love story about how we transfers fell in love with a school that we would quickly find ourselves calling home. I don’t know about you, but I was ready for this change. After spending two years of non-stop work at community college, I didn’t think there were any more IGETC courses that could prepare me better for what was ahead. And yes, those classes did help me, as did my counselors, professors, and peers. However, as excited and ready as I was, there was something about transferring that I wasn’t prepared for. More like a few things I wasn’t prepared for.
If I could compile a book of quotes that I said either aloud or in my head during this first quarter, I would title it Her UCSD Transfer Experience: A Compilation of ‘Help, I Think I’m Lost’ and ‘Wait, what?’
A few of my favorites would be the following, and hopefully you can agree:
“You don’t take dining dollars, either?”
“But if I walk really fast can I make it from Center Hall to Rady in 10 minutes?”
“This is the Super Loop? OMG, not the Campus Loop?!”
“Did you know you can actually use dining dollars for Starbucks?”
“No, Mom, I don’t know how to give you directions from that campus entrance to me!”
I think I also speak for many of you when I say that, during my first weeks at UCSD, I have gotten lost. Lost not once, not twice, but enough times that I’ve sometimes wondered if I was actually still on campus or not.
And no, I was not prepared for the incredibly spacious landscape of UCSD in comparison to my community college. The sprint I was accustomed to doing from one end of campus to another turned into religiously using the UCSD phone app to find shuttle times. Ain’t nobody got time to run from The Village to Sixth College.
I’m still not used to looking outside of my apartment window and seeing my classroom staring back, but I am certainly getting used to life as a Triton.
While we may have stumbled and found ourselves feeling like little fish in a big pond once again, what we must know is that we’re not alone. We’re at the home stretch of our first quarter here at UCSD, and we need to give ourselves a pat on the back for transitioning so well into this new chapter of our lives.
The confusion, the laughs, and the embarrassing moments probably won’t end after our first quarter here, but that to me is the beauty of entering a new place. Sure, I’ll probably find myself getting lost in a random group of trees again, but aren’t those the moments that we live to tell? Those are the moments that create our entire college experience.