I hopped on the plane at LAX

With a dream and my soccer bag

Welcome to the land of college stress

Am I gonna fit in?

Starting off your freshman year of college is always frightening. Throw in heading to school out of state and that raises the level of frightening five times over. It's always difficult to leave what you know behind.

It’s been a little less than three years since I left the salty ocean breeze of California to explore the city of Houston. New state. New city. New school. New people. Adjusting to something new is never easy and most definitely always a bit scary — especially when comparing things like Galveston or Houston in August to the likes of California at any time of the year. When choosing a school I had to factor in academics and athletics. Almost all my options were in California and close to home; yet, I decided that, while Rice was a 24-hour drive and three-and-a-half-hour flight from home, moving away and living someplace new would be worth the risk.

I constantly feared that I would regret moving away from home — that I'd miss my family and miss my little brother grow up. Transferring to a school back home was always a viable option; however, I gained a family away from home and kept in touch with my parents and brother via phone calls and Facetime. While these methods took a bit of extra planning and effort, the sacrifice was worth it. My school family helped me throughout my first year and continued to help me excel away from home. When you attend school away from home, your friends become your family. Going to school away from home isn't always ideal for everyone but if you're considering it, it's important to be open to great possibilities and take the time to actively keep in touch with everyone back home.

The cool thing about college is that there’s a wide range of people with varying interests. There’s a place for everyone. If you prefer to be alone, to each his own, but if you’re someone who has major concerns with finding friends, there is a place for you in college. I remember I was super worried about making friends as well as balancing the demands of school and soccer. But now I have a great group of friends that I can always count on. That’s one of the great things about going to college — there are more people to meet, more places to discover, and you can learn about yourself in the process.