On August 17th, I moved from a suburban town in Kansas to a town right outside of St. Louis located 270 miles away to begin my college career. Early in my high school career, I had decided I was going to go out of state for school if it was a possibility. By my senior year, I was looking forward to leaving the town I had lived in for almost my entire life and going to an entirely new state to meet entirely new people and pursue higher education. However, the reality was much different than the fantasy. Although I have only been in college for four weeks and am just beginning to learn about this stage in my life, here are some of the most important things I have learned in this first month:

1. Homesickness: I was anticipating missing my house and my pets and my family and friends, but not to such of a hard-hitting degree. The instant my family had pulled away from the curb, the homesickness hit with full force. It was unexpected and surprised me how much I wanted to go back to the city I had been looking forward to leaving for so long.

2. Seizing Opportunities: Homesickness fades, has not yet totally been dispelled, but the thing that most facilitated easing its magnitude was diving into activities that I knew I would enjoy. As an introvert, I did not love all the parties planned for the first weekend on campus. However, after classes began, I became involved in the theatre department, something I loved doing high school and found comfort in the familiarity of this hobby. The first night on campus that I truly felt comfortable was when I attended the theatre group’s showing of "Rocky Horror Picture Show." Through this department, I have been able to seize opportunities to participate in various events and keep my time occupied.

3. There Are All Types of People: Once again, as an introvert, I found it incredibly difficult to make friends and build close connections my first few days with people aside from my suitemates. I felt completely drained from trying to appear sociable and likable to all the countless new people I encountered each day. My expectation of college was that the opportunities for friends would be endless, but I forgot how difficult forging friendships can be at times. The first relationships I began building that felt truly effortless also occurred in my school’s theatre department. For the first weekend, I was spending time with the same group of people from my hall and hadn’t branched out. Once I did, I found beginning to build friendships much easier.

4. Time Budgeting: As a high school student, I budgeted my time effectively, but was certainly guilty of falling into the internet or Netflix wormhole and pushing homework off to the side. I have very quickly learned that pushing off even a couple of assignments to the next day can lead to a very overwhelming time and entire days devoted to nothing but homework.

5. Dorm Life: I had heard all of the horror stories about living in a dorm and sharing bathrooms, but so far dorm life has not been awful. Yes, the room is small, but it accommodates everything I need. The closet is tiny, but all my clothes fit. I am sharing a bathroom with three other girls, but all are wonderful people and, bonus, all of us have different enough showering and getting ready in the morning schedules that we have proceeded without conflict. As an introvert, the most difficult part has been adjusting to not being alone very often due to the constant flow of people through the halls, but dorm life has, thus far, surpassed by expectations.