There’s a stigma when going off to college that you signed the next four years of your life away to this one university, for better or worse. There’s this expectation that you will go and you will be happy and you’ll survive and graduate as expected, but as many people know the path is not always so linear.
Maybe you got to school and realized it wasn’t the right fit. You saw the students finding others who shared their passions and interests and felt you could not connect, you saw the same faces every day or lost yourself in the masses, you realized city or rural life wasn’t for you. Visiting the school, maybe you swore this was it, or maybe the college process felt so rushed you barely knew the schools you applied to, so when the time to make a decision came around you chose there and it was wrong. If you chose to leave be proud that you chose happiness, that you could recognize the environment wasn’t right and were brave enough to seek it elsewhere.
Maybe you got to school and loved it, but for personal reasons you couldn’t stay. You or a loved one got sick and you had to return home for care, your financial situation changed and you could not sustain yourself at the school you loved, you discovered a passion that will not be fostered with the limited majors offered. If you chose to leave stand tall and remain confident in your choice, college is a time for new friends and clubs but it’s also a time to push yourself, and by putting yourself first and choosing to leave a place you called home you are an incredibly strong being.
Whatever reasons you have for leaving, it took courage. Despite those who may not understand your choice, despite your doubts, hold on to that. Your path is constantly shifting as you begin to better understand yourself and who you want to be, and by making the choice to turn the pages to your own book and write a new chapter you show a skill to persevere and delve into the unknown.
Once again you will be walking onto a new campus to experience your first year, remember how you felt first time around and bolster your steps with the awareness of the power you have. You are now a master of your own fate and have learned to steer the sails. Push forward, new challenges will arise and you will rise above them. Do not feel ashamed or embarrassed or cowardly for leaving your old school, do not let the strict path we had been told to keep you from pursuing your bright future.
I was lucky enough to find a perfect fit which lets me thrive, and for all my friends who are switching schools or those of you who are reading this without knowing me, know that you still have plenty of time to find that too. You will be a force to be reckoned with next year. You will hold your head high knowing you did not move backwards but forwards onto better things.
