myUsearch blog

One of my biggest fears about freshman year was coping with moving so far from Denver. But once I’d decided on Seattle University, I decided I’d just have to take this as an opportunity to grow. I knew it’d be different, but there were a few changes that hit me harder than I was anticipating:

1. I’m out on my own-really. I have to fight off the temptation of hanging out with friends just doors away and whip myself into studying, or doing laundry, or eating, for that matter. I have literally forgotten to eat meals. And on that note, while the dining hall food is actually good, it’s nothing like Mom’s Filipino noodles. On the plus side, I don’t have to ask permission just to get out of the “house.” My schedule is mine.
2. My parents know I’m out on my own-really. Which means that when I checked my cell phone after class last Wednesday, there were twelve text messages, missed calls, and voicemails from the same two phone numbers. Don’t worry, yesterday there were only four.
3. I have no idea where I am. There’s a concert I want to go to in a few weeks. I’m told it’s pretty close to campus, and that’s the extent of my understanding. I’m used to just walking around town whenever I’d get bored. Not only am I clueless as to which buses go where and which streets are even near one another, but I also have no idea which coffee shops offer a prime studying atmosphere or where I’m going to get my gelato fix.
4. I can’t shower with my music on. It’d be just…plain…awkward.
5. It’s a different culture. For one thing, everyone recycles here. Obsessively. Not that I have a problem with that, but Denver doesn’t have recycling bins in the streets, and I feel like someone might throw me into the campus compost pile if I improperly sort my plastics. The community concerns, the political leanings, the ethno-cultural influence, the attitudes - there is such a different atmosphere in Seattle as there is in Denver. I’m left asking a lot of questions and struggling to explain things that seem so common to me. It’s a little weird at first, but how else am I going to learn?
6. The weather is different. I know, I know. Eeeeveryone warned me. Best advice I got before starting college in the northwest: bring a hair dryer. Not just for your hair, but for everything you own that will get wet. You won’t even know how it happened.
7. I actually like it here. The biggest challenge of all has been balancing past and future. I promised my parents some webcam time, I told my friends I’d call, I owe my sister a letter… But at the same time, I want to check out some campus events, I want to study with new people, I want to go out to dinner with my roommate. As much as I miss seeing my friends and family, I genuinely feel at home so far, and I almost feel guilty for it.

While these have been rough ropes to race through, they have all made some of the best moments of my first week of school and invaluable lessons for the rest of my life. Adjusting to a new environment, being exposed to different types of people, and deeply evaluating my relationships are all things I would have had to face eventually. I’m just glad that I took the chance to do so at a time and place where thousands of other students are going through the same thing.

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