New beginnings

College, comfort and coping

Hello all!

I don’t like calling my dear readers ‘all’, so do suggest me ideas on what I should refer to all of you as. I was thinking of lifers.

Anyway, it has been a minute since you have seen this pop up now, hasn’t it?

I have been wrapped up in my new college life. I have completed my first 2 months in college and a month of living away from home. Wow, it feels like only yesterday we graduated from school, time is truly flying! I currently am living as a PG in a two-bedroom apartment. My PG is about 20km from my home, so many people question why I wouldn’t rather travel from the comforts of my home to college when it is very plausible. I wanted to experience living away to get that college experience. Moreover, I have travelled the same distance for 10 years, I don’t think I have it in me to do that for another 3 years, phew. It is quite incredible that I have been born there, done my schooling and now am studying under-graduation in that area. Not really a full circle moment but almost like I am just doing circles just there haha!

Anyway, living on my own has been interesting. There was a lot of adjusting to do. A lot of things that I took for granted. I have been taking a lot more decisions throughout the day and handling things as simple as food. I needed to learn to trust my instincts. There was no parent or adult there to help advise or guide me throughout the day. Initial days, I did feel anxious at the start because I didn’t trust myself enough to make those small everyday decisions. Being given the responsibility to handle money was also daunting but necessary. Just making sure I am not late to class in the morning is more challenging than I thought it would be.

College life has been fun-filled and exciting so far since the studies and exams haven’t hit me yet. I have made wonderful friends who I enjoy being around. However, the college environment took me some time to adjust to. In Gitanjali, during my final two years, I had a total of 13 classmates in Humanities. Hence, shifting here was very intimidating at the beginning. I had gotten very comfortable being in a small school for 10 years that entering an institution where the number of students in my class at any given time is almost or more than half the strength of my entire batch during my schooling. It was almost very overwhelming to meet new people, especially due to the pandemic making me so used to staying at home and being around the same people. I felt like I lost my confidence due to losing that sense of familiarity now that I was around strangers Fortunately, I have been very lucky to make some really good friends and met some truly awesome people. We have had jam sessions, fests, dance breaks, dandiya nights, long discussions about pop culture, etc.

These past few months have been very eye-opening. I think it is important to be made uncomfortable to grow as a person. During one of our podcast episodes with Chintan Singh, when asked about an adventure she said, she defines adventure as slowly coming out of your comfort zone and then pushing the boundaries. She says when you go out, you meet new people, you see a new culture and meet several new challenges too.

So, this is my adventure. Meeting such a wide range of people with varied backgrounds, stories, talents and interests. I am pushing out of my bubble and learning more about myself each day. I am still figuring it out one day at a time and every day is different.

I want to end with one of my favourite quotes from an amazing book, Letters to a Young poet by Rainer Maria Rilke-

“And as for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.”

Do share your journey on this adventure in the comments below. Also, drop in some tips or daily hacks which can be used by me or anyone else who needs them.