For a majority of people, after high school comes college. I’m a majority and guess what, it’s college move in week. It’s like the first day of school, plus a reality kick to the gut. You’re essentially living on your own (with a couple other people in the same boat but you get the point). Now it’s up to you to decide if that shirt looks good on you or not, how to clean a ketchup stain off your pants, which brand of butter to buy and whether or not you usually get salted or unsalted.
To be honest I don’t know how I feel about moving into college. I’m not terrified, I know my family taught me enough and it’s not like I’m going off the grid. But I’m also not all for it, ready to dash away, wave goodbye and go party it up at rush week. And I know that as stupid I sound to myself, there are plenty of other people thinking the same exact thing.
College is a bigger step than I keep thinking. Maybe it’s because all my life that was just the plan, go to school, go to more school, and get a job. It seemed normal. But then I was filling out applications and realizing that college didn’t just mean a seven hour school day and going home to mom and dad. It meant making your schedule, planning around work, getting a job, applying for scholarships, making your own grocery lists, disciplining yourself and living away from the life you’ve known for roughly 18 years.
Once you start thinking about it that way everything just goes south. You stop wanting to go and start unpacking your suitcase. But what good is that going to do you? You do that and stay in your childhood bedroom, safe and sound. Great, swell, you happy? Or are you falling behind everyone else and just staying in your little comfort zone while a whole other world is waiting for you to be a part of it. That’s what I thought.
All of our first day name games teach us to step out of our comfort zone, our parents raise us to be ready to do so, and you’re certainly not meant to stay stagnant for decades. You’re supposed to grow, expand and change and the only way to do that is to step out of your warm and fuzzy comfort zone and unappealing as it may sound. Yes, I am aware I sound like a teaching trying to get you to socialize and ask cookie cutter ice breaker questions. But I’m not. I’m someone in your shoes who would much rather prefer to stay in their childhood bedroom and go grocery shopping with their mom but is fully aware that I can’t do that. I have to suck it up and move out and deal with four more years of school.
I don’t know how everything is going to pan out, but I know it will, because I vaguely remember cleaning tricks my mom taught me, my dad taught me to always check the oil in my car and never run the gas too low and I know I can text my sister for fashion (and of course life) advice. I spent 17 years comfortably in my little bubble but it’s time to pop it and see where else I can be comfortable. My parents and sister spent those same 17 years teaching me everything I know and preparing me for the world I don’t know yet. They did a great job. I can tell because no matter what is going through my head while I pack up the last of my things, I’m still going. I’m not letting anything stop me and you can’t either. So I guess the point of this literary therapy session is to tell you that everyone wants to stay in their comfort zone, everyone’s minds are moving at a million miles an hour when they get ready to take this step, but we all still do it. Because staying where you are gets you nowhere. Just pop your bubble and see what’s out there, everyone in your life has put in the work to get your ready for it. Don’t let their work go to waste, take the step, and get comfortable in your new life.
