It was 90 degrees on my first day of classes as a transfer student, and I was refreshing my Rutgers bus app like my life depended on it.

Nothing says "Welcome to Rutgers" like being sardined on the LX in almost 100-degree weather, where the etiquette of personal space and our precious bubbles disappear. However, despite our unavoidable proximity, I've never felt so distant from my new colleagues, as I watched them all share the same head-down-headphones-in demeanor. This "Don't Talk to Me I'm Busy Being a Millennial" look began to impact my own choices of self-presentation and how I started to occupy my own time, ultimately transforming me into an unrecognizable stranger during my first semester at a Metropolitan school.

I felt like a small fish in a big sea...

Full of fish cliques.

And the bitter-sweetness of cliques, they're hesitant to let outsiders in.

As the neurotic socializer that I am, I tried initiating conversation with my peers everywhere I went; class (so, did you get the textbook yet?) and on the bus (aren't these bus drivers savages?) but everyone was just more interested in the one-way communication coming from their earbuds, or noticeably held the mindset "ugh I have enough friends, can this girl stop with the small talk already." As a transfer student, I braced myself for possibly having to push myself further out into the unknown in order to be accepted into already-established cliques. However, I was not prepared to fight the anti-socialness that haunted the majority of the student body, and how the majority were evidently more preoccupied with their Snapchat "streaks" than face-to-face interaction. After a while, I found myself participating, and possibly losing myself in the process.

Social interaction has been replaced with headphones and screens

I was aware of the dangerous overtake of screens on my generation, but the fact that the majority of my peers were noncompliant with my friendly attempts, I found myself succumbing to living my life "behind the screens" during my first semester here. After several weeks of familiarizing myself and adjusting to the headphones-in-head-down look of my colleagues, I began conforming. I avoided eye contact with others like the plague, began to be physically present while mindfully in the cyber world, such as on Twitter, Snapchat, or Instagram. My weekends consisted of "Netflixing" instead of living. I started to lose my excessive social abilities, living vicariously through a screen and social media platforms instead of physically putting myself out there in the college environment.

I consumed more, created less

And I don't just mean I was eating more in the dining hall (because that's a whole other issue). Although I love social media and believe its multiple platforms are both influential and inspiring in many ways, if you catch yourself, like me, scrolling more than creating, you will begin to lose your creative edge. I began to lose myself when I realized I was consuming more than I was creating in an environment that made it too easy to live life "behind the screens." The further away you separate yourself from your creative side, the harder it is to rejuvenate it. We all enjoy searching for hair, fashion, fitness, food, and décor inspiration on various platforms, however, it's time for us to start inspiring again. Do not allow yourself to fall victim to inaction and overconsumption, because it's certainly more worthwhile to provide your own unique content to society than to constantly take.

How am I now combatting the inevitable fate of Metropolitan students?

One semester later, I'm creating more while trying to consume less, (both in the cyber world and in the dining halls), by writing this article, as well as by providing my own Instagram, Pinterest, and overall social media content. I began to put myself out there again, and, thankfully, have found a group of friends who've saved me from bingeing on every Netflix show available.

Keep an open mind. Even if it seems like you're surrounded by hopeless millennials who're too absorbed in their phones for some off-screen interaction, there are old-fashioned folks still out there (hi!) who're worth searching for.

You're allowed to catch yourself slipping, as long as you find a way to melt the ice.