<p>Hello. I am a graduating high school likely going to be attending SUNY University at Buffalo, but regardless, I'm highly nervous about some large adjustments I'm presuming I'll need to make to live during my education, or at least during my freshman year. I would appreciate any advice, anecdotes, comparable experiences, etc. in regards to any of my issues because I'm somewhat freaking out. :P</p>
<p>A severe problem is learning how to wake up on time... alarm clocks don't work so much for me and without my family around as at home, I have no idea how I'm going to get up for my classes on time all the time. I'm going to be afraid to sleep simply because I can't really control when I wake up.</p>
<p>Then, my shy aspect does come into play and the general public atmosphere will be a bit uncomfortable for me. I can manage this, I suppose, but it's just more of a transition-of-lifestyle uneasiness for me... am I never going to have any privacy considering I'll likely be sharing a dorm room and considering the communal restrooms? Then what if it's too loud to be able to study properly or what if I really don't get along well with or don't feel comfortable with who I'm around? UB's housing plan is seemingly quite random and arbitrarily based on nothing, really, aside from time of enrollment. What do I do then and what if I get too claustrophobic/agoraphobic in all this with little space to really move around or place my own personal belongings (planning to bring my TV and my PS3, as well as a laptop and, eventually, my own custom-built desktop PC; doubt I'll have space for it all, especially in a double room). I'm highly worried about my room-mates... yes, it's pretentious of me, but I'm pessimistically picturing loud, hard partiers and the like. I'm desperately hoping I'll run into people I know from my high school living close to my dorm room, if not luckily being my roommate, because otherwise, I'm going to be an introverted, shy, timid kid in a sea of strangers.</p>
<p>Anyway, communal bathrooms... I'm both a very shy person and extremely germaphobic. Public restrooms purely and simply incite sheer terror in me as, blatantly, I despise germs/filth, I'm uncomfortable with no privacy, I also have these paranoid fears I'm going to catch some disease from these places. Plus, if even so much as urinate standing up, it's almost a guarantee by the basis of liquid physics that some amount of liquid drops will splash on me and they always do, so I tend to go sitting down and I don't go sitting down except in my own private restroom, plus I'll have to do the other thing at times. This is almost unavoidable... almost meaning avoiding it would include going for housing on separate campus from where I'll be spending most of my time and even at that, considering UB's "first come, first serve policy regarding housing" (as well as my relatively late enrollment date), I likely don't have much control over where I go or even which dorm size I'll be getting. So... purely and simply, please help, I have no idea how I'm going to endure this aspect of college life.</p>
<p>In addition, as just more of a self-conscious issue, I'm a bit upset in thinking that I'll feel small and really not considered an equal to those around me. I know, it's pretentious to think such things about people I've never met and may very easily be very respectful and kind people, but I tend to think the worst of things and my height (suppose I'm not too short at about 5' 6", but...) and I always feel as though I'm less significant in comparison to many taller people. Put that in a constantly social environment with strangers and I just don't feel too good about myself... not confident speaking without feeling as though I'm relatively some little kid. </p>
<p>Ultimately, I also feel like I'm not going to have any free time and I'm just going to spend all my time studying or being uncomfortable.</p>
<p>In general, I simply don't know how to adjust to this (why is college so popular for people... scares me). It's unfortunately, going to actually be quite the downgrade from my current standards of living, what with my own, spacious room, queen-sized bed, comfort zone (family), dependance, private house restrooms, and more, as I'm sure it may actually be for most people, but to top that off, there are still all my academics (pre-med) and I was hoping I could fit some part-time job in for some spending money, but with all this already going on... I'm just flat-out scared to go to college and anything anyone could say would really make me feel better... just so I don't feel like I'm completely alone in this and so I could get some tips on how to deal with certain issues. To anyone that took the time to any of my demon parade, thank you. I just want to be able to say this to someone.</p>