College can be scary: new people, new experiences, new normals. For me, the college move wasn't far, but it was a big change nevertheless. I thought I knew who I was, what my goals were, and who I wanted to surround myself with. It turns out, I didn't really know much at all.

I grew up with a mom who loved to travel, and dragged me all around the continental U.S., from local New England places like Boston, Providence, rural Vermont and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, all the way to Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Denver, Colorado; Utah, Arizona, and even Las Vegas. As a high school senior, I was sick and tired of school and craved a new adventure; so, when I applied to college, attending the University of Maine (just 20 minutes from home) was my very last choice.

When I pictured my college experience, I pictured mom and dad driving me across the country and dropping me off at some big university where I didn't know anyone. I pictured going to football and hockey games, dripping with my school's colors; running to my new sorority on bid day; having a huge group of friends, none of which I knew before freshman year; going out to parties; meeting guys; getting to come home at Christmas, and telling everyone about how wonderful I had it all the way back at college. In a whirlwind of a year, I gained everything I hoped for and more, only 19 miles from home.

Within the first few weeks of college, I had experienced my first college classes, my first fling, RUSH WEEK, my first party, my first football game, and I had gained a handful of brand new friends. My first fling lead to my first heartbreak in college, as you may have already assumed. Rush week lead me to a group of 54 girls who shared the same motives and values as me, and who I clicked with and loved to death. My first party lead me to my first *real* hangover, and coincidentally so did my first football game. The friends I had made were actually two 21-year-old guys who stumbled into my apartment by accident one night, which was the strangest blessing I could've been given because they are now my two favorite idiots in the world.

In the fall, I was living in my new apartment with two girls from high school, and it was amazing. I had been friends with one of them here and there throughout high school, but the other I had barely spoken to all four years. Within the first few months, the three of us had created a whole new life together; a friend group, a schedule, and 'normals'. Things were great, until life tested us all and proved how different we really were. By January, I had been convinced by multiple events that living in that apartment was not where I needed to be. I ended up finding an open room right across the parking lot, in an apartment that had three other girls in it: and I knew none of them. On move-in day, I felt so weird walking into someone else's apartment with all of my stuff, walking through the halls and up all the stairs into my new room; that was, until met the first of my roommates. Come to find out, she was the same age as me, liked country music (like me), loved to have fun (like me), but also had the same lifestyle as I did, by keeping things clean; which was a huge factor as to why I moved out. I met my other roommate shortly after, and she was the coolest; a senior, just the kind of girl that had experienced it all and would act as a guiding light; it wasn't long after that I felt truly at home.

The weekend that I moved in, a whole new life began to unfold for me, and I was really becoming satisfied with my life at UMaine. I met a group of my roommate's friends, and loved each and every one of them. With each day that came, there was something I gained that I realized I had been missing before; experiences such as running into random apartments and just 'saying hi', to going to hockey games with a group of friends, and laughing until my stomach hurt telling stories on the couch at 3am. I never would've gained such a rich new life, had I not let go of my old one. Letting change in was the best thing that happened to me during my first year of college, and I am the happiest I could've imagined I ever would be in college. It didn't take a $100,000 loan or 1,000 miles to get the college experience I wanted, all it took was a little trust in the process.