By Madelyn Moore, Guest Columnist
As my parents said their goodbyes and hesitantly shuffled their way out of my new home, my stomach sank. I looked around at all of my unpacked items and clothes which sat in plies, waiting to be put where they belong. Was I really about to start over on a random Monday evening? A consuming feeling of regret clouded my mind, and I started to wonder if I ever really wanted to come to college or if it was simply implied that I had to go.
My roommate then ran to hug me, squeezing any doubts out of me. Alexa quickly proved to be a lovely and fierce ball of fire. We roamed the campus we barely knew, confidently laughing and talking as if we had known each other for years. I felt alive and thought that maybe a new start was not the horrible force that I once believed it to be. Yet my new safety net of comfort broke the very next day as Boiler Gold Rush (BGR) began.
Thrown into a random group of students, I no longer was with my roommate and my feelings of regret began to crawl back of out the shadowy corners of my mind. I quietly spent the next few days walking around with my group on the same campus I once confidently roamed.
Surprisingly, by the end of BGR Saturday night I had made several friends and was beginning to feel thrilled when considering starting my classes the next week. I no longer was confined to the same group of people, and I had the opportunity to be reconnected with people from home as well as spend more time with Alexa.
As classes started, new friends were made and a routine was finally created, I found myself enjoying life in a way I had not before. I formed new relationships, discovered new interests and hobbies and recognized an ability to find peace no matter my environment. I walk those campus sidewalks lined with fallen leaves, with renewed confidence.
I now laugh as I consider my first week of college, full of mishaps, a horrible attitude and shattered hopes that laid somewhere on campus sidewalks (along with my lost dorm key).