Change. Change occurs every day. But it is not everyday that one packs up all of her belongings and leaves home, leaving behind family, friends, the ones she grew to love and trust. And all of a sudden, she is thrown into a new world, and a new culture with new surroundings. She is thrown into a world of the unknown. This is her new life, but is she ready? She is so used to the familiar, to what she has grown up with for the first eighteen years of her life. And now, it’s like that life has been erased and it’s time to start anew. It’s time to start something she has never seen, never experienced before. And it is no surprise that it is a journey of emotion. She has only begun this journey, and yet she has experienced it all: happiness, loneliness, anticipation, anxiety, excitement, homesickness. But, most importantly, she has experienced joy, and joy is essential in every aspect of life. She knows this is where she is meant to be, and although it may be hard adjusting to it all, adjusting to everything that’s different than what she knew, she knows that this is part of her plan, her purpose in life.
It’s weird, the concept of making new friends. I’ve grown up with the same people for as long as I can remember. Of course, there was Junior High. The most awkward two years of my life so far, when everyone is just kind of friends with everyone. Although I hated being in the run-down old building, having to wear ugly, uncomfortable gym uniforms, and, of course, taking sex ed. with Coach Summerville, I wouldn’t give up going to school with two new sets of classmates from different elementaries, who I would spend six years with. But, Junior High was different. It is not exactly comparable to making friends in college. We are no longer in that stage of awkward body transformations, the brace-face age, or the segregation between boys and girls. I am an adult, and as hard as that is to believe, it’s time to make friends on my own. There isn’t going to be anyone to hold my hand along the way. It’s just like diving in, head first, and having faith that I will make it through this. The faith that there are special friends, special relationships picked out just for me, much like how I was led to Alabama. Nothing is coincidental. Everything happens for a reason and I am ready to see and discover the reason I am at Alabama.
