It was the 2nd of July when I got a confirmation from Krea University, with that confirmation also came the date of enrollment, which was barely 15 days away. That meant I had close to 10 days to pack and leave my home, the safe space where I spent 18 years of my life. That morning, I walked up to my parents with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders and hugged them tight, I then gave them this news. They were extremely happy but deep down I could also see how sad they were. They were almost afraid about letting their only daughter go away from them for almost 4 years, or maybe for a longer time, who knows? Though I was happy that I got into Krea rather than having to go to one of the engineering colleges which was the original plan, I felt a void in my heart that was equally upset about leaving because almost all my life, I had stayed with my parents, deep down I knew that even though we made promises of seeing each other very often, it would eventually get harder with our schedules. I kinda wasn’t ready to leave home and my comfort zone yet, but I sure was ready to start my journey of college life.
The day had arrived when I bid adieu to my two favorite people and walk the threshold of living my life on my own amongst a few stranger, or so I thought them to be, until my first day at Krea, where I managed to make 2 friends in the elevator and after all, I thought to myself- “this can’t be too bad”.
The next evening, my parents left with tears in their eyes as well as mine, the only difference was that I had to walk all the way to my residence hall with watery eyes. That night we had our buddy introductions and as one would not expect, one of the girls in the buddy group and I started talking, just the formal conversation, and in time, we got so lost in the conversation and getting to know each other that we didn’t even realize that we lost our buddy group. We burst out laughing when our buddy found us and we realized we were with the wrong group yet. That was when and how I found my companion, well, who would have known? We hung out every time ever since and that night marked us coming out of our cocoons. The orientation week that followed passed by in the blink of an eye. We did fun activities like playing treasure hunt, a meet and greet session to get to know each other, and a karaoke night and all of this made me feel more comfortable with my surroundings and allowed me to expose myself to a lot of activities I had never done before and meet people having various interests. It was crazy but super exciting. Classes started and so did my full-fledged campus life. Over the span of 2 months, I met a lot of people and made quite a few friends but a handful of them were my home away from home. We bonded over trash talking about courses and watching Netflix on the weekends. Eventually, it became “our thing” to take late-night walks and laugh around like we were crazy. If someone had to find us, all they had to do was knock on my door. One day we came up with an idea to decorate our rooms and we put up lights and pictures and posters together. My sleep pattern has become a freestyle now because there’s no way having banters and sleep go hand in hand.
As the days passed, I started to feel less strange and more comfortable in Krea. I also ended up being a part of several clubs and societies and though I complain about the workload most times, I love being occupied.
I have come to an end of the first trimester and though I’d be lying if I said I’m not eager to go back home for the term break, when I reflect on my time on campus, all the small things I enjoyed, and all the bed days, as well as the unproductive days where all I did was procrastinate, I realize why my parents used to tell me that the key ingredients of life is to have fun while being kind and independent. Growing up, you do understand things better after all.