Picture this. You’re a young girl, between the age of 12-13, sitting in your pink room, and you can’t see beyond the four walls that surround you. You live with your parents, your brother, and your dog and you can’t imagine not seeing them each and every day. You have a die-hard love for sports, and you have high hopes to be on the sideline one day reporting on the game you love. Keep picturing... You go to school, see your friends, go to practice, come home, do some homework, eat dinner, go to bed and get ready to do it all over again the next day. That’s your routine, and you wouldn’t change it for the world. You are hopeful for the future but scared to get started with it. That was me.

Ok, now picture this. You’re a grown woman, 19 almost 20. Sitting in a variety of rooms, where a majority have concrete walls, but these are walls you can see beyond. You live with complete strangers that you have to interact with every day. But soon enough these people will hopefully become your friends. You still have that die hard love for sports and you are in the predicament where your childhood dreams have the potential to become a reality. Your routine changes every day and you are never sure what might be thrown at you. That’s your routine and whether you like it or not, it’s only up to you to change it. You made it through the scary start and now you’re on your way to your dream. This is me now.

Making the transition from high school to college was one of the hardest things I have ever had to endure. It was easy for me to put myself out there, and get involved, but it was never easy for me to leave my routine I had done for years, be a plane ride away from my family, not know a single person upon arrival, and overall living on my own. I had always known it was going to be hard but I wanted to challenge myself and realize that this step was going to be the start of a long journey.

I never imagined myself at a small school where sports were iffy and I would see the same people every day. Local schools weren’t for me. I was ready to leave the high school friends behind, and experience a different part of the United States. I wandered back and forth from this idea and thought maybe I needed to be close to home. What if something happened to my family? What if I got really homesick? What if I get out there and I hate it? All of these ideas bounced back and forth through my head but from the wise words of my mother, “whether you’re a car ride away, or a plane ride away, you’re still not home.” Believe it or not, this simple saying inspired me. She was right (always has been). Regardless of my location, I STILL wasn’t home.

After a long, tedious process, I finally made the decision to come to Purdue. It ended up being the best decision I ever made, but at the time I didn’t know this. I was intimidated by many things, and this was all normal.

Now that I am in my second semester of my sophomore year, my mind and dreams are much further than the pink walls of my childhood bedroom. One thing I have taken away from my time away from home is that many things are temporary. High school friends? Temporary. Homesick? Hard, but temporary (only if you make the best of your circumstances). Loneliness? Temporary. This period of time really opens your eyes to many things. As cliché as it sounds, I don’t think I would be the person I am today if I didn’t decide to take the leap and go to the best University that I am fortunate enough to call home.