All in all, I had a pretty good freshman year. I mean yes, it was stressful and at times dramatic and I learned the hard way that high school GPA’s don’t necessarily translate to college GPA’s. But with everything taken into consideration, my first year was pretty solid. I made new friends, joined different clubs and organizations, and learned how to survive on caffeine in the absence of sleep.

During my first year at school, people were constantly asking me how my transition to Berkeley was going, and how I was adjusting. It was always polite small talk, and I don’t know how many of them actually cared, but it was a question I thought a lot about. By the first day I was settled into my dorm with my new roommates, strangers from opposite coasts who were fun to live with. By the second week I had become an active member in the campus’ Jewish community, and by the end of first semester I had figured out roughly what I wanted to study and found creative outlets and organizations to help me grow academically. By all accounts, I’d assumed that the transition was over, and I’d survived to see the other side.

But I returned to school a few weeks ago to begin my sophomore year, and I realized my mistake. I had assumed that the phrase “transitioning to college” implied a short, measurable period of getting my bearings in a new environment. I figured that once my school was no longer new, after I’d decorated my dorm room, mapped out all my classes, and joined a club or two, I was officially done transitioning.

But honestly, since my time back at school, it’s become clear that all of freshman year was kind of a transition for me. Freshman year was a lot about trying to make new friends, trying to decide what in the world I wanted to study, and figuring out how to begin attempting to adult. I spent nine months out of the year in college, and yet it still didn’t really feel like home to me.

There’s a lot that went into changing that for me as I came into year two. For one thing, I’m no longer living in the dorms, rooms literally founded on the idea that they are a temporary living space. This has made a huge difference, because my staying here feels a lot more permanent and homey. While I still love to make new friends, the constant pressure to be socializing and networking 24/7 has faded. Instead, these past few weeks have shown me that between clubs, classes, and work, I have cultivated enough relationships that I’ll almost always see someone I know when I’m out and about. And even if I don’t, eating a meal alone no longer feels like a sign that I don’t belong, it literally just means I’m hungry.

Also, Google Maps has (mostly) become a thing of the past. To be fair, I’m geographically challenged, so I don’t think I’ll ever completely stop needing a map to get around, but at least I now have a generally good understanding of how the campus is situated. And as that’s happened, the school’s campus has actually begun to feel a little smaller to me too. I mean the hills are still a hike, but it’s no longer as daunting and overwhelming as it once seemed. Most places around campus now hold some memory from freshman year, and I haven’t gotten lost once since I’ve been back.

Adapting to college didn’t happen overnight for me, and I think I took for granted how the gradual transition over the course of freshman year helped set the stage for the years to come. My college really has become a place I am comfortable in, and it is filled with people I care about and can’t wait to grow with in the years to come.