I wanted to write this post as I feel as though I haven’t really given many insights into what’s going on in my life at the moment! I didn’t publish a blog post last week as my parents were visiting and I wanted to spend lots of quality time with them, and even before last week I feel as though my most recent posts didn’t really give you much information about how the move and transition to college have been going… so… here’s a post full of updates!

It’s now been just over two months since I moved to Washington DC for college, but I honestly feel like it’s been way longer. Sometimes I’ll think back to those first few weeks and things I did, and it seems like such a long time ago; I think now that I have more of a routine down and feel more at home here, it seems weird to think about my first few weeks here without those routines. I definitely feel a lot more at home in my dorm and just around DC in general. I think for a while I didn’t really venture off-campus by myself, which just wasn’t good for me! Living and working on the same campus can get kind of overwhelming and it made me feel kind of trapped for a while. But I’ve now learned that I need to get out sometimes and I have a nice new running route where I like to go around sunset and I like to walk off-campus a few days a week to work at a coffee shop which is a nice change of scenery. I think it’s just taught me that I need to prioritize those little things that genuinely make me happy, like getting off campus and getting a change of scenery. I think it’s so easy to forget to take care of yourself in that way at college because at home those things were already woven into your daily routine and you have to put in the effort to insert that into your routine at college.

I think also one of the reasons I hadn’t shared a lot about my journey recently is that I feel like I’m still very much still adapting and going through a transition period. Sometimes it feels hard to write about it because I feel like I’m still learning every day. There are some days where I feel great and some days where I feel very homesick and anxious, and so it’s difficult to reflect on it in blog posts and share everything because it changes day-to-day! But in general, things are going a lot more smoothly! I definitely think I’m one of those people who finds the transition to college harder than others, and for a while, I felt guilty about this or like there was something wrong with me, but I’ve just accepted that that’s how it is for me; it doesn’t mean I don’t like college, I’m enjoying it! I just miss my family and home a lot sometimes!

One of the other things I’ve learned is how to pick myself up when I’m feeling low. Sometimes I’ll be a bit stressed out or something won’t be going exactly how I want it to or I’ll just be missing home a bit, and I’ve now learned how to cope with these feelings. At home, everything was just so familiar so when I was feeling a bit low, I just naturally knew what would make me feel better. But here, I have to make more of a conscious decision to cheer myself up on a low day. For example, on Tuesdays, I have classes all day long, and being in a classroom concentrating all day makes me feel tired and low on energy by the end, so I now know that I need to go eat a nice dinner with people after class and just spend time with friends and go to a sports practice to end the day.

Something I’m still very much working on is learning how to cope with stress. I have ALWAYS been bad at dealing with stress, and being on my own at college has just made it harder. Back in high school, I was used to the workload and I knew pretty much what to expect from a test, so I would be able to handle the stress. However, being away from home on top of new types of academics just makes it a bit harder to deal with it all. I am working on this and will hopefully be able to give you some positive updates soon!

Anyways, I hope you liked this post! I thought it might be helpful to just update you with where I’m at! As much as this blog is a place to share advice with others, it’s also kind of like my online journal, and I felt like I hadn’t updated it in a while. I hope to continue sharing this journey with you 🙂

See you next week,