I have been through a variety of emotions as my first move-in day quickly approaches – excitement, fear, hesitation, and nostalgia are a few. Going to college means many big changes: your family is no longer around you most of the time, you won’t be able to come home to your dog after school anymore, and you won’t be able to sleep in your own bed, etc. But we switch these comforts out for a chance to learn how to be on our own and to work towards a degree, so we can get a job that hopefully won’t involve standing behind a register.
It’s a scary concept - what happens after your parents leave and you’re standing alone in your new dorm room? The week before move-in day, you play the scene out over and over in your mind. You switch from excitement to anxiety to sadness in a matter of a minute. You become ridiculously sentimental over the smallest things. As you watch the majority of your friends leave one by one, all in different directions, you try to imagine what they must be feeling on their last day.
You’ll ask yourself a dozen times, What will I do on my last day home? I know I’ll probably be doing a lot of last-minute packing, but I’m also going to be thinking about facing an uncertain future in less than 24 hours. Plus, there’s also the idea that when you do come back, you’ll be different.
That’s part of the fear - as you go through your last week at home, you can’t help but wonder how different you’ll be when you’re home for your next break. But the biggest part of your fear is not how hard your classes might be or having to share a bathroom with a whole floor of students. I’m terrified of saying goodbye to my family, my dog, even the town I grew up in for 18 years. Now I’m the last of my friends to leave. I have survived through a couple of hard goodbyes already, but I’m not sure how I’m going to soldier through these last few, the most difficult of all.
And while I’m scared, I’m also incredibly excited. I’m nervous about leaving the town I grew up in, but also more than ready to get to experience living somewhere else. I can’t imagine spending the next four years at any other college. Beneath the exterior of fear, I know I am ready to move on, meet new people, and leave high school behind me.
The week before leaving, you will have to constantly remind yourself that this is what you want. You will have to remember that after everything is unpacked and the goodbyes are said, you’re going to start a new and crazy adventure. You are turning the page to the next chapter and writing your story in a completely different way.
Amid the chaos of packing and trying to remember everything you could possibly need, don’t forget to spend time with your family and close friends. It’s not just a hard goodbye for you, but for them too. Cherish the last few nights you have in your own bed, the last few days laying with your dog on the floor, the last few evenings eating dinner with your family. And don’t forget that you are coming back! Thankfully, it’s just a goodbye for now.
Try not to think of this as an ending, but a beginning of a part of your life where you start to focus on what you really want to pursue. Leaving will be hard, and you know that. You have anticipated move-in day for weeks now, and even though leaving behind your family and hometown will be sad, you will also admit to yourself that you are ready.
College involves a lot of big changes, but nothing gets better without change.
