The Change that Comes with College

With the end of the year right around the corner, millions of seniors start to finally choose where they will go for college. Although a majority may want to stay close to home, our dream schools are far away. We will inevitably experience an uneasy feeling during this stressful time leaving us to wonder whether it’s really worth going so far from home in order to reach our dreams.

It is a tough decision to make and one that will leaving you wondering “what if” for the rest of your life. We see it as leaving home, being away from family, and sometimes that becomes a little lonely. But it doesn’t have to be like that because there are always two sides to a coin and it’s about time we start to realize that.

Going away for college is a form of fighting for our dreams because we are given an immense opportunity from this one act. If you are a person who has never left town, it will be a momentous occasion filled with adventure and new discoveries. It may sound cliche, but, one of the greatest things about a trip is the change that comes from moving from point A to point B.

There is often a great change in scenery when going to college, especially because it is not “home.” Your surroundings could change from huge industrial buildings and skyscrapers to plain farm land or mountain ranges or forests. These differences become a whole new experience because your body is not accustomed to the fact that the air is so much cleaner than the city. These experiences let us see the beauty of mother nature and how vastly different places can be as we discover to love our homes for the next four years.

Not only is the location new, but so are the people that live in it. These people often have a diverse range of characteristics from those back home. At first, they may seem strange to you because you are not accustomed to their different ideologies or their personalities. However, it is through the acceptance of their differences and your own that learning can happen. College becomes a place for discovering other cultures and traditions as well as discovering new parts of yourself. We have all come to gain a higher education and we shouldn’t let new and strange things stop us from doing that.