College can be a difficult and a stressful and stressful transition. Not everyone goes to school knowing someone that they went to high school with. For me this made the transition quite difficult, I did not know anyone when I arrived at Keene State this fall. Here are some pros and cons of going to college all alone and having to start over from step one...

Pros:

1. Reinvent yourself.

Didn’t like who you were in high school? Not a problem when you go to a college where you don’t know anyone and by coming in blind, you can easily make a new person out of yourself. Nobody knows any mistakes you have made in high school.

2. Make all the new friends you want.

Making new friends is definitely my favorite part about being at college. Even in high school, you were confined to one friend group. In college it’s just so much easier. You have orientation, and different sports everts, and even joining different clubs and teams. They find every way possible for you to make friends in college.

3. You can always try new things.

You get to try new things here without anyone from home being able to drink in high school. Join a new club that you would never think to join in high school or hang out with the types of people that you wouldn’t hang out with in high school.

Cons:

1. You will get homesick and it will suck.

Being away from home without your parents, friends, or even anyone familiar can get hard. You will move in at the beginning of the year and feel free as ever. You will be happy to finally be able to do and eat whatever you want. No curfew. It’s great. Then you’ll have to do your own laundry, and you’ll start getting sick of the Dining Halls food. That’s when you realize that there is no one here that you know and you would do anything just to go spend some time at home and get some home cooked food.

2. It's harder to make friends.

You move into school only knowing your roommate if that. Sometimes you have to eat by yourself. And even sometimes you just sit in your room alone. Things can get boring until you finally meet friends and become close with all of them.

3. Everyone at home is changing and you're missing it.

Everything and everyone at home is changing. Your friends are changing. Your home is changing. Even your high school and town are changing. And here you are stuck at school with no one from home to talk to about all the changes going on.

4. No one at school understands home.

For me I have a friend here from a nearby town, but my roommate is from western mass. She doesn’t know anything about anything about Eastern Mass or New Hampshire. Peabody becomes Pea-Body and they never understand where anything we talk about is.