For my first article, I wanted to address my own personal change in life of graduating from a big school in a big city, to a small school in a small city. I was born in Queens, NY and lived there up until I was six years old. We moved to a small city in Western, NY and we lived there for about seven years. At the start of my high school career, we moved back to Queens, NY and I have lived there ever since.

1. Population

The biggest transition for me was probably the change of the amount of people I see on a day to day basis. In NYC, I was constantly surrounded by people always in a rush to get to work, school, or just for their coffee. Sometimes I would run into someone I’ve seen a few times going to or from school, but I always saw different people whether it was walking to the train station, or being on the train. Here, I pretty much see the same people every day. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just strange getting used to.

2. Shared Space

My entire life I’ve shared a room with someone. I thought I knew what sharing a room was until I had to actually share a room with two other people. I’ve found different times at which I can have a quiet peaceful time alone and when I can get work done without being disturbed, because we get distracted real fast when we’re in the room at the same time.

3. Workload

I knew going into college that I would have a lot more to study for and that I would have to try harder to pass all of my classes, but I don’t think I was ready for all of that to hit me on the very first day of classes. It kind of makes me feel guilty that I took advantage of high school work.

4. Food

Coming from a Latino family, I’m used to my mom always having hot meals ready for me at the end of the day. Coming to college and having basically the same unhealthy food for days straight had me thinking twice about how certain I was about not gaining the “Freshman 15”. Between all the greasy and fatty foods I've consumed since I've gotten here, I've definitely been watching closely to what I've been putting into my body.

5. Rules

I didn’t think I’d bother me so much especially because I’m a pretty obedient person and I don’t like causing problems, but I had to get used to the fact that I have to go to a certain amount of chapel sessions to graduate and I can’t just randomly pop into my friends dorm building whenever I’d like.

Don’t get me wrong, my college experience has actually been pretty great since I’ve moved here. These are just a few of the changes I’ve had to get used to. I’m really glad I chose my college though, I’ve been seeing some great things and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year brings.