My experience compared to Sarah’s
Sarah seems to be struggling a bit with finding herself and who she is. She tries to know more about herself by changing her looks and her diet. Not only does she struggle with that but also with how she views herself since her roommate is so overachieving she feels lower than her. She does not let things like this keep her down though, though she does not feel as comfortable making new bonds with people at first, as the semester progresses, she makes more relationships. I relate to that because even though it has only been one month that I have been here, I already made 2 friends which to me is great! I do not necessarily need to find myself, but I also plan on dyeing my hair next week. I feel that we are both stressed over the workload that college gives us, I would prefer to be in class for hours than to have to do things on my own after class. I do feel for her having such negative feelings with her roommate since I do not have those feelings with mine, I think we all put in the work that we do, and we are all different so we should not compare ourselves to each other or anyone in general. I am extremely excited for the holidays, I already go home every weekend, so I do not feel any negativity towards it. I feel more dread towards coming back, I know college is not that hard and it can be enjoyable sometimes, but it honestly feels energy draining, I do try to make the most of it though. I think that larger university students have less opportunities to have one on ones with their professors and it would be harder to make friends, while at a smaller university at some point you have a good chance of knowing a lot of people there and making great relationships with your professors.
Dear writer,
I can definitely tell that Sarah is struggling to find herself being in such a new environment too. It is hard being in a new environment by yourself. I am glad that you have been able to make two new friends! Having even just one person can be super helpful in a new place just so you aren’t alone and have somebody to talk and bond with. I was lucky enough to come to school with 4 of my friends from highschool so I was very blessed to have a support system which made adjusting much easier.
I completely agree with you about being stressed out about the workload. It has been hard to adjust to forcing myself to do things out of class as there are so many distractions. Like you, I would much rather have a longer class and do the work there, then have to manage my freetime to get things done. It will benefit us however as we will learn time management and other skills useful in adult life.
I am also very grateful for our smaller university. It is definitely easier to get to know people because you see some of the same faces everyday. Being able to talk to your professors one on one is also a huge game changer when it comes to topics that aren’t being grasped. I have only been home once this semester and it was only for a few hours before leaving to go to a concert, but I definitely can’t wait to be home for a break and spend time with my family.
I am sorry to hear that you sometimes dread coming back to school and find it energy draining. I think a lot of people can feel that way when they are put into a new environment with new people and more work. It definitely is a switch, but hopefully as you continue to adjust to college life and meet more and more people that feeling will change and you’ll be eager to come back to school, and maybe even stick around on the weekends sometimes.
Best wishes,
Cullen
Dear Dallana,
I do agree with you on how Sarah is struggling to find herself. I think that she is used to being what everyone wants. She has become used to that and doesn’t know how to be herself, so it became very difficult for her to find herself. And hopeful college can help Sarah explore and she could possibly find who she wants to be as a person. And the style she is into also could find new things of interest. And I believe if Sarah could grow her confidence that could help her in the long run and could lift her up so she can achieve a lot because I feel like she doesn’t believe in herself enough so she expects herself to do poorly. She doesn’t feel like she is good enough to achieve greatly so she feels below her roommate. I can agree with you on that and how she views herself as a person. And Sarah is such a shy person she just needs to build her self esteem and she is a good person. It would be easy to make friends if she could open up and be a little more talkative that could help her get people talking to her. I’m glad you have made a few friends, and you already know who you are but who knows you could find something new about yourself while her or later on that you didn’t know about yourself. And what color you will be dying your hair and do you plan on styling it a certain way for the color. That good you don’t have any negative feelings with your roommate and have a positive relationship with your roommate. And it would have been better if Sarah got to know her roommate before starting college or hung out before, so they weren’t strangers.