Home is a place that has an address I’ve memorized like the veins on my arms and the wrinkles on the back on my hands. A phone number, a mailbox, a pear tree right outside my window. When visiting colleges I had a ridiculous smile and gleeful feeling in my heart when I stepped onto CU Boulder’s campus and I knew this was the place. Even though it is the perfect school for me, CU Boulder did not match this criteria of ‘home’.

I used to laugh at other students who considered college home…how could it? It didn’t have family and to me family equals home, or at least this is what I used to think.

It was not until second semester that I started calling Boulder, CO home. It took me some time to feel happy so many miles away from a support system and routine I knew I could handle and felt comfortable with. Just like everyone else, I had to learn to balance my social and academic life, while figuring out how to do my laundry like a real adult. They don’t lie when they say you grow once you live on your own. I was soon realizing that college life is a bundle of chaos and busy schedules that I would have to solve like a puzzle.

After getting adjusted to the countless new experiences thrown my way, I started admiring the little things in life and realized I could do this. Today, I could not be more thrilled to be here. What made the difference of making campus home for me was keeping busy by getting involved and surrounding myself with a good support system of individuals.

Now that I am 3/4ths done with my Freshman year, my advice to anyone who feels lost or lonely on a big campus is to not be afraid to join clubs, go greek, or just get involved with the community. These are just a few ways to get connected and grounded in this new unfamiliar land and chapter of your life you are exploring. Sooner or later your campus too will feel like the backroads that you know by heart from those coordinates you know too well, and become a place you can proudly call home.