So you made a decision that a good majority of college students never have to make: you chose to transfer to a different school.

There are plenty of reasons why you could have chosen to attend school number two or three or four... Maybe you started out at a junior college to save money and now you have to take the next step to finishing your degree. Maybe you are like me and needed to do a little soul searching at three different schools to make it work. It's not really my business why you transferred, but I do want to encourage you throughout your journey. It is not an easy thing to be the new kid again. It is actually incredibly annoying. You understand the college process, but the school is entirely different. No one is in the market for a new friend at this point- everyone got that out of their system after the first semester. But you're doing this.

It is happening and now it's time to deal with it.

I'll skip the fluffy 'You can do it' speech. We're all adults here. And you don't really want to hear it anyway. We know we can do it, it's just a matter of getting it done. So I'll be frank, transferring is really hard. Leaving is hard. Making friends is hard. Doing it all over again is hard. But for some reason, staying was not the answer. The answer was putting away all your old college tshirts and making room for the new ones. It was moving in with someone you didn't know or finding an apartment by yourself. It was learning to be lonely again, and being okay with it. I often find that transfer students are the most resilient people on campus. We are the ones that don't really fit the mold that says you have to attend the same college four years in a row and be an die hard. That's not our style, and if we're being honest, we always kind of knew that.

There is absolutely no way I'm going to tell you that you should join a club/team to make friends and get involved with the school. It's not a bad idea, but that wasn't really the end goal for me, personally. Transfers have walked a different path than everyone else and so we have some different ideas about the world. Going out every night and rushing a sorority wouldn't have done it for me- and maybe not you either. The only advice I have for you is this: find what makes you happy and pursue it. Pursue it everyday and never let it out of your sight. If you love your major or your job or painting furniture- do that. Don't ignore the fact that you are different. But don't let it put you in a sad corner either. Be as vibrant as you want to be.

Do something great.

Transferring schools was the hardest thing I ever did, but it was also the best thing. We already know we can do it, so let's get it done.