I confess: Personally, Wake Forest was not love at first sight… nor love at any point in my first semester of college. I truly believed that I was going to transfer. I felt as though I could not mesh with the campus culture or find people to form genuine connections with.

First off, I was a visible misfit. My wardrobe primarily consisted of black clothing, mildly aggressive graphic t-shirts, and then some more black clothing. I did not even know what the brand Lily Pulitzer was until a girl on my hall kindly explained that the myriad of girls I saw wearing vibrant pink and green prints donned its clothing. I had also never set foot in the South until I visited Wake, and coming from the liberal Bay Area, I felt entirely out of my element.

Spending the first 18 years of my life in the liberal bubble that is the San Francisco Bay Area did not exactly prime me for a smooth transition into living in the South. Entering college, I was under the impression that conservatives were fundamentally racist, homophobic, sexist individuals who either lacked education or simply did not want to confront necessary social change. I had only one friend from home who regularly attended church with her family, and during election season, my neighbors who sported “Romney: Believe in America” signs on their lawns had them repeatedly stolen or vandalized.

I always knew in the back of my mind that my liberal upbringing and values were not the norm across the nation. People told me all my life that I lived in a bubble. I knew it existed. Nonetheless, the South shocked me – my second day in North Carolina I spotted a Confederate flag flying off the back of a truck. I vividly remember thinking: Oh my gosh, this really is a thing. The local Yik Yak seemed to be a constant stream of insensitive, racist, and sexist comments, and there were so many points in time where I could not believe the words that came out of some peoples’ mouths.

I had never encountered opinions like them before. Initially, I perceived this to be a negative thing... Negative that so many people held different beliefs and ideals than I did. In actuality, it forced me to recognize my bias and realize that in many ways, I was just as narrow-minded as I perceived others to be.

Had I never left California, I would still be so limited by my lack of communication with people different than me. I never would have been intellectually challenged beyond the classroom, and I have found that this is such an essential experience in order to grow as a person and create informed opinions.

There was no single turning point that altered my attitude towards Wake Forest; rather, it was more a combination of experiences and realizations that in retrospect, make me so incredibly happy that I did not throw in the towel and transfer.

My ability to be happy at Wake was, in large part, a matter of understanding that I can co-exist and be friends with people who are different than I am, that there is no correct way to view a certain issue, and that it is OK to agree to disagree.