The first week of school is upon us! And for those of you who are transferring to a different college, it might be even scarier than starting as a freshman. I went to a new city for my freshman year only to turn right back around and come home for my sophomore year. Even though I knew everyone from home, I was twice as nervous about starting at a new college than I had been before starting college in general.
Transferring can be a little traumatizing. The idea of starting completely over (again) will make you second guess yourself a hundred times, wondering whether or not leaving will be worth it. But if you're not happy where you are, there should be no questions asked. Leaving all my new friends and even some of the old friends I had just gotten closer to was in no way easy. Some even became like family to me. And while some of those people weren't thrilled that I was leaving, my unhappiness was not worth worrying about how long they'd hold a grudge for when I did leave.
Starting college can be one of the most highly anticipated and nerve racking times of your life. A million questions run through your head: What will my major be? How will I make new friends? How am I going to do in a class of 300+ people? Honestly, just because you've done it once doesn't mean it gets much easier. Transferring means finding classes to line up with the credits you already got. And if those credits don't transfer over, you risk having to take the same exact class for a second time solely because it has a different name than the class you already took. Transferring means figuring out your way around campus, the transit systems, and finding all the best and worst restaurants. Transferring means having to wiggle your way into friend groups that have already been formed, and it's hard. Girls are catty and when someone tries to penetrate their perfect new world, they might get rejected. While all those things sound stressful, it's worth it if it means you finally find where you belong. And maybe you're still unsure of yourself and your current life plan. But getting out of the rut will help you regardless.
For my personal experience with transferring, the good outweighs the bad. Those girls that you tried so hard to befriend will end up being your best friends. Wondering around campus looking for your next class might turn into a daily workout routine. Retaking a class only means you get to learn the information better and probably increase your GPA by doing so. And if part of the reason you transferred was for a certain major, like myself, it means you finally find your little place in the world. All the worry of switching colleges will make sense once you start taking classes that you actually want to attend because you're genuinely interested in them.
College is supposed to be the time of your life. It's not worth being wasted if you aren't 110% happy with where you are or what you're doing. Transferring can be traumatizing, but settling is worse.
