fourth year paria fakhrai

Like many bright-eyed and bushy-tailed freshman entering the exciting and unknown world that is college life, my first-year at this fine institution was nothing short of memorable. Unexpectedly, my first-year experience also came with many trials I wasn’t always prepared to face. With the rushed excitement of entering a new stage of life, it hadn’t occurred to me how difficult it’d truly be to start a life away from the one I’d known for so much of my existence.

Leaving the comfort of my home, my loving family, friends I had grown up with since our awkward middle school days—suddenly all stripped from me. Although freshman year was packed full of new faces, new memories, and new experiences, it opened my eyes to the struggle a transitional phase of that magnitude had on my mental and physical health. I had always prided myself on being an adventurer—a free-spirit,if you will—always up for facing the unfamiliar and the unknown. The internal struggles I faced throughout my freshman year humbled me to the true effect change had on me beyond my once romanticized idea of how I handled uncertainties.

As I fast-forward four years, a present-day ancient and wrinkly senior, I find myself yet again entering an important transitional phase in my life. In the next year, I’ll have graduated from the best university to exist, left the college-town that I love, parted ways with my family away from my family, and started a big-girl job in a big-girl city away from any place I’ve ever known as home. This time, it seems even scarier. This time, I’m self-aware of my struggle with transition, and it scares the hell out of me. This time, though, I’ve come out through the other side once before and know it will be okay. Better, even. Change is terrifying—there’s never a guarantee of what awaits us or what is to come—but, it is also incredibly thrilling. Four years ago, lonesome and confused me had no idea what awaited her. She didn’t know she’d meet her true life-long friends, travel to so many amazing places, cheer and cry with all the dawgs through the journey that is Georgia football, and learn so many people’s stories while sharing hers along the way. Present me, though, knows how incredible the transition ended up being for my life. I’ve learned a lot, grown a lot, and changed, a lot. So yeah, transition is pretty daunting, but I know there’s always good to come. There’s a comfort in the old, sure, but there’ll be comfort in the new too. As the saying goes, no one made a house into a home in one day.

Transitional Trials