<p>Today was my first day on the campus and in the dorm room without the parents. It has been one heck of an experience, the moving in was incredibly smooth, and then all of the sudden when my parents left I felt incredibly sad. Now a few things to note; I'm not one of those kids who desperately wanted to get away from his family. I love my family to death, and just the thought of leaving them has been incredibly tough on me for the past few months. In a way, I feel as if the only people and things I cared about were stripped from me as soon as I got to college so I already have an incredibly negative vibe. It sucks. Also the fact I know no one here makes it all the more difficult to take. </p>
<p>I'm now incredibly curious as to everyone else's experience has been thus far. Also, anyone with some advice, please share.</p>
<p>It will hit me tomorrow when my parents fly back home and i’ll be alone…</p>
<p>I love my family too…</p>
<p>My uncle lives 15mins away from my University though so I guess I’ll still have some family around (even though I’ll be in Texas and my parents will be in VA).</p>
<p>Yeah, its like I’ve become bipolar or something. One minute Im happy I made it to college, and I have this awesome opportunity, and then the next I think of how great my life back home was and how it could possibly top that.</p>
<p>I was sad… but you have to realize that now is the time to grow up and all of that. You won’t have your parents around all that much anymore. You don’t want them. You may think you want them, but you don’t. Part of maturing and growing up I suppose, be thankful for such a great opportunity. Some people have to fly thousands of miles across continents and don’t get to see their parents for years probably.</p>
<p>Keep yourself busy, you won’t notice it once you start doing stuff.</p>
<p>I’ll be a sophomore this year, but when I was a freshman I felt exactly the same way for a little while. I’m horrible with change, so that certainly didn’t help. My mom and I are really close, and when she left I just kind of lost it – I literally couldn’t even think about her, or home, or anything like that without crying (although I’m seriously a huge crybaby, so that was pretty much expected for me) for a day or so, and the first couple weeks I was just generally miserably homesick and weepy. I got out and met people, went places, etc. – it’s not like I was just sitting in my room sobbing all the time! – and genuinely had fun with a lot of the new experiences, but I had that same sense you describe of nothing at my school being MINE, and everything and everyone who was important to me being somewhere else.</p>
<p>It gets much, much easier, I promise. Once you start making friends at school, getting into your classes, adjusting to campus life, and getting your new routines down, it really does start to feel like home. Rest assured that a lot of people feel like you do, especially their first day. And as far as feeling bipolar (going from “wow this is great!” to “I want to go home”), I did that, too. One second I’d be optimistic about how awesome college would be and how much ass I would kick and maybe thirty minutes later I’d be pricing airfare for Thanksgiving and looking at transfer applications (no, really, I looked at transfer apps my first week). If I can make it through the transition, I’m pretty sure anybody can.</p>
<p>I don’t hate living at home and I get along with my parents but moving into a dorm is 115% better IMO. The only time I was upset with being in a dorm was move in day when the AC was overworked and the rooms were like 82F(when I’m adjusted to 64F at home) trying to sleep was impossible.</p>
<p>Somewhat, I’m usually pessimistic about my own situations but excluding that yes I’m a realist. Missing your parents may be an issue but suck it up, you’re about to be surrounded with mobs of people who could potentially be like a new family to you(that’s how my first year turned out).</p>
<p>I also knew my roommate my first year which probably also helped. I’m sure my dorm experiences would have been miserable if I was forced to live with someone I didn’t see eye-to-eye with.</p>
<p>I just moved in yesterday, although I’m staying with a team for preseason so it’s slightly different. However, I feel sort of similar to you - I’m really sad to leave all of my friends behind, because I pretty much liked my life back home. I’ll miss my sisters and my parents (mostly), but I think I’ll get used to it.</p>
<p>I guess it hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m having a good time, but I almost feel like I’m at summer camp - like there’s a date when I’ll go right back home, instead of being here since Thanksgiving. Still, when I got here I was a lot more terrified than I am now. I’ve been here for a day now, and it’s a lot better.</p>
<p>I think a lot of college freshmen feel the way you’re feeling, but if all of them stayed that way, then we would hardly have any college students at all. I’m guessing it gets easier.</p>
<p>When I very first moved out of the house I felt exactly like this. It did get better once I was kept busy and had work all the time. I started adjusting to my new life, and I always held onto the thought that this was the time for me to go on and do all the cool, exciting, things I’ve always wanted to do in my life.</p>
<p>At school it wasn’t so bad this time around- mainly because I’m only a couple of hours away from my parents. Right before my mom left I was really sad, but since then I’ve been okay. I mean, I get to go home fairly often so I don’t have it that bad.</p>
<p>I think the worst part was having all the free time between move-in (Saturday) and the beginning of classes (Wednesday). Next time I think it’ll help if I move in much closer to classes so I don’t have so much time to just sit around. It really messed with my mind instead of me remembering the number one reason I’m there- education. </p>
<p>Just remember, this is only a few years of your life. After college you don’t necessarily have to move far away. It’s not a rule that you go to college and the ties are pretty much broken between you and the friendship/love you used to have with your family. You still have the rest of your life for a whole new lifetime of memories :)</p>
<p>Thanks October, that was helpful. Its sort of what I have been thinking over today, and its helped a lot. The second day here hasn’t been nearly as bad.</p>