If you have ever transferred, or have a friend who has, you know it is so much more than simply moving locations. It's something that can be planned, or something that a year ago, you never saw coming. Either way, it usually works out for the best. You know you're a transfer student when...
1. You thought about it a lot before.
You will think about it a lot after. It's okay to miss where you came from. It's okay to not. It's alright to cry, and it sure is alright to laugh. If you're doing it right, you might be doing a lot of both (heck, maybe at the same time).
2. It takes a bajillion and one extra little steps just to catch up.
FAFSA and housing applications, I'm looking at you.
3. Credits may or may not be accepted.
But you don't fight the ladies in the office, because they are just so darn sweet.
4. "I'm a Transfer" is a nervous tick that you picked up somewhere between finals week at your old school, and the second day of your new school.
As if they couldn't already tell.
5. You leave extra early for classes the first week because maps are hard.
And so is adjusting to not being 1.6 minutes away from your 8 a.m.'s.
6. You go out of your way to find your niche.
Free pizza and movie night? I'll be there. American Sign Language Club, why not? Running with Friends? Sorry, I can't make it.
7. You are in the in-between of being neither a freshman, nor a returning student.
A FWB: Freshman Without Benefits, if you will.
8. You genuinely struggle to not use the phrases: "at my school", "my old school" and "my friends at my other school".
Yeah, it takes a while; some people are really forgiving, though!
9. You feel like you are going to lose what you had.
Because, there was a lot.
10. But then you lose that notion quickly.
I've also noticed that time will go by just as quickly in between the laughs and the late-night stories. Snapchat and FaceTime are wonderful creations.
11. Some things are harder than others, but those things can be more rewarding than others.
And sometimes, it is enough to simply make my bed in the morning.
12. Everything is a comparison, but everything is different.
You feel old and stuck in your ways. Catcash? Wolfbucks? Oh, man.
13. Time goes by unnoticed after a little while.
Your parents worry a little less, your friends from your old school want to see you a little more.
14. You become empowered and assured of your reason (major, finances, social situations).
You learn things about yourself that you never knew. You grow in ways that you never thought you could. You meet people you never would have otherwise. You do things you might never have done before.
15. Life is short, and your college years are shorter. No matter where you spend them, make them count.
Even when studying becomes overwhelming.
