You get so used to your usual routine. The same friends since kindergarten, the same Sunday night dinners with your entire family, going to school at the same time everyday, rarely ever travelling anywhere…. And then you go to college. Time with your family becomes scarce and you wonder why you’re always longing for that kind of love, group chat becomes the only time you ever hear from your home friends for weeks on end, and all of a sudden you’ve been in 5 states in the past month. College is a time of much discomfort and missing that couch in your living room at home and your mom’s home-cooked meals.

Going to college is something most people in America do out of habit without giving it much thought. When we think of college, we don’t really put ourselves in the location that we will be for 4 years or even think about the fact that we may not be in arms reach of our family for months on end. We think “University of Michigan would be cool, or maybe Arizona State,” but we don’t really think, “wow I will live in Arizona for the next 4+ years.” Acclimating to college is probably one of the hardest things to do, and going to school in a foreign place will make it that much harder to get used to or to feel comfortable, and all of a sudden home seems too far away.

Most people don’t account for the idea that you will no longer be with your usual friends and family 24/7 anymore. This causes a lot of feelings of loneliness in the beginning of college, even if you make tons of new friends at school. Comfort levels with your new friends might be completely different than you’re used to with your friends from home. College is so weird in the sense that you are now living in a completely new place with completely new people, and that is hard to do. It may be one of the biggest adjustments anyone goes through in their whole life. There is such a feeling of discomfort, travelling to and from. Being at school and missing home… being home and missing school. College is a very weird time for most people – who may not realize why they always feel so weird or sad.

However, college is a growing and learning experience where, for those 4 years, you accept how uncomfortable it might be and just learn to be on your own and have fun and work hard. Once you realize that this is a very important and deciding factor of your life, the weirdness and discomfort comes full circle to help you to become stronger in the long run. All those times you wished you were home will be forgotten about and you will only remember the experience you had being at college. Once you make it to your last year of college like I have, you’ll realize just how scary the years to come seem…