When we enter college we all have this fairy tale idea of what the next four years is going to look like. For some maybe this is graduating with honors, maybe it’s joining the team of your dreams, or maybe it’s just making the very most out of these years and making endless memories along the way. So what happens when maybe you realize this wasn’t at all what you had been picturing in your head? Maybe you learn that being homesick is something than happen to you when you never thought it would. Or, maybe you're just having second thoughts on where you chose to spend these next four years.
I was there. Maybe it was being 24 hours away from home, or maybe it was being the first one from my high school to venture down south. All I know is that all together it was culture shock. Being from Colorado, I had never heard of anything remotely preppy. Honestly, Vineyard Vines, and monogram weren’t even in my vocabulary. Dressing up for a football game was something I had never expected, as a tailgate back home would trade in the dress for a pair jeans.
The South was this unchartered land, and I was lost. How was I supposed to know what direction I was going in with no mountains to point me west? I was about ready to give up, call it quits and go back to my roots; when I made the best decision I ever made. I stayed. Instead of transferring schools, I gave UK a second chance, a chance that changed my life.
Now, in my second year here at the University of Kentucky, I can honestly say there’s no place I’d rather be. I remember back in high school hearing my counselor’s wise words of “ give your university a full year before deciding it’s not where you belong”, as I told her I wasn’t going to attend Colorado State University or CU Boulder like the majority of my grade. Instead I was leaving my comfort zone and all I had ever known in order to pursue a dream, a reason well worth the 1,338 mile journey to UK.
I am here to pass those words of “sticking with it” on to you. Stay at you’re university. At least for the year. I hope you emerge yourself as much as possible on your campus. Embrace where you are and love every second of it. Find what makes your new campus home for you. It could in a fraternity or sorority, a sports team, or even in that one club you decided to join, because-well why not. I found my home in the people and school I came to love.
I know for some reasons, your current university and you just might not work out. And that’s okay, too. But as the confessions of an almost transfer student, don’t waste your energy wondering if you university is right for you. Instead do your very best to embrace it. Because sometimes change is the true essence to what could propel your life forward. Sometimes it’s that very change that will change into the person you were meant to become.
After a semester of wishing I knew a familiar face on a familiar campus, I’m glad I stayed where I am and have always truly belonged. Because Caturdays are better than saturdays, and there really isn’t a better color than royal blue. So before you make that decision to start over at a different college, try you’re very best to give your current one ample chance. I’m sure glad I did.
