Just a few months ago I made the decision to pack up my entire life and move across the country to attend Fordham University, located in New York. I fell in love with the beauty of the campus, its 15 minute distance from the heart of Manhattan, and core values and traditions. Last Friday, I took a last minute inventory of all of my bags, and shortly after boarded a plane that would take me to my new home for the next 4 years. I've now been living on campus since Sunday, but it already feels like I have been apart of the student body for years.

However, homesickness is a real thing, and never let anyone convince you otherwise. The whole purpose of freshman orientation is to keep you busy enough for the first three days of college, in order to keep your mind off of missing your true home, your family. One of the last orientation presentations involved faceless testimonies recalling their freshman experiences. One guy talked about how he was constantly surrounded by the temptation to not do well in school, and another girl recalled her experience living in a shared dorm for the first time; pretty standard stories. The final testimony, however, was given by a student all the way from California, my home state. I immediately found myself tearing up as she spoke of how alone she has felt during her freshman year because all of her friends were from the surrounding areas and were able to go home on a short notice.

Though I decided to take a risk and go to school across the country, I also needed to keep in mind that my family wasn't going to be a short car ride home. Though this realization makes me miss our family dinners and movie nights more than ever, I've also come to realize that this opportunity will allow me to truly find myself with no distractions and build up my perseverance and courage. Life is not about being comfortable in your current situation, it is about being able to challenge oneself and explore all that you didn't even know you could do.