The whirlwind that is college is a tough ride no matter how your journey starts. But that journey becomes especially difficult when you aren’t happy with the original choice of university that you made. Not liking your school can stem from any number of factors, but no matter what it may be, it’s up to you to take your college experience into your own hands and make the change you need. And for me, that change was transferring schools.
Before I moved into my freshman dorms that first year, I thought that I had everything figured out. I had heard nothing but amazing tales of how wonderful college could be and been told how much fun I would have. But, let me tell you, my first year was a struggle from start to finish. And at the time, I couldn’t figure out why. I was accepted into my first choice of school with a scholarship and a place in an accelerated program. Yes, I had a bad string of roommates and the cafeteria food was terrible, but I was in the place that I had thought I wanted to be.
As the year got worse and my mental health declined, I decided that it was time for change. I ended up transferring to UMKC after my freshman year. When I was in high school, I dismissed the idea of going here because I thought to myself that I wanted to be on faraway adventures, and it seemed like such a small school. This transfer was the hardest decision of my life to date. I gave up everything I had at my old university for UMKC, a college that I wasn’t even that excited about.
In all, I would say it took almost a year to reach the conclusion that I had made the right decision. There is no easy way to transfer and I left some amazing opportunities behind at KU. But on this campus, I found what I had been missing: community. My miserable sophomore-self somehow managed to make friends and join new organizations that I would never have even contemplated being a part of before. And in the end, it’s the people that I met here that made all the difference.
I went from being a miserable freshman to a now nostalgic senior. It was a hard decision, one that I would never wish upon anyone else. I felt like I was giving up an amazing opportunity, even though my heart wasn’t in it. But now, I can say that transferring was the best decision I could have made. College is never easy, but sometimes a change is what you need. In my case, I now have an amazing campus and community that I’ll be sad to see go as I head toward graduation.