I am 3 1/2 months away from graduating high school (joy!) and 6 months away from starting college at the University of Texas in Arlington. The old 4 year long chapter in my life is finally coming to a close and, obviously, I'm glad. In a way though, I'm not so happy.
New beginnings start off very different. In this next chapter, I'm mostly going to be by myself. I'm not a loner and I'm actually sticking within a 20 minute distance from home but most of my closest friends are heading off to far away colleges like the University of Texas at Austin or Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. The group of friends that are staying in town and/or going to college at the same college I'll be attending won't be so close either. Take my friend Crystal for example, she's going to UTA but is also getting married to her boyfriend Chris in the summer. Then, there's Isaac.... Isaac can be an okay guy to hang out with every now and then but he's not necessarily someone I'd like to hang out with on a daily basis or talk to all the time because he can be a bit mean sometimes. Ben is another friend staying in the area but he's attending Texas Christian University (that's in Fort Worth, where we live, and it was my third choice for college). Good friends are very hard to keep around.
The other people I know who already attend UTA are older and are also great friends but some are graduating this spring while others will follow up next semester or the one after that. My friend Kevin for example, is an Architect major there (he's graduating soon) and I've seen how time-consuming that can be. Then there's my ex-boyfriend, who also attends there, and we don't speak to each other anymore (that's a totally different story). His sister, who I sometimes talk to, is studying Nursing there and graduating this spring. So it's tough and I'm not so keen on meeting new people either.
I wonder if anyone else is also feeling this way. I mean, think about it. It's somewhat scary but cool to be in this totally different environment that encourages the pursuit of a better education (one you get to choose) and be off to start a new you. Then again, you're leaving who you are back in high school and your friends, who you'll stay friends with and have known for a long time, will go off and leave themselves there too because they're going to follow their path too. It's odd, I wonder if there's anyone as confused as me here.
Feel free to post any thoughts or comments on this.
p.s
The title is derived from a Blink 182 song from their Enema of the State cd.
I'm totally afraid to go away to college and become this loner person who has to eat lunch alone.
Or something equally unusual.
But I'm sure things will pan out.
They always do.
College lunch is a lot different. Because everyone eats at such different times, you don't always eat with your friends and neither does anyone else. So you will have plenty of other people who need someone to eat with. Also, everyone is away from home and scared and looking to meet new friends so its easier than starting high school where everyone hangs out with their friends from middle school.
Like what you've read? Well, then here's more:
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/tricia0711