Dear Diary,
Today turned out to be the worst day of my life. To think I dreamed of how perfect this day would be: posting pictures of my Pinterest-inspired dorm room, taking family photos outside of college buildings, and no one crying, annoyed, or absent.
How naïve.
A hurricane struck on my move-in day, delaying my flight and making everything hectic. I was alone from the moment I stepped into the airport. Having quit her job as a nurse due to trauma caused by the pandemic, my mom couldn’t afford to come with me.
My plane landed at 11 a.m. but I successfully reached the college at 2 p.m. Yes, the airline lost my luggage. Also, I cried for the first time that day. Oh, and they found it two hours later.
My Uber dropped me off at the testing center. Big mistake: the college had overestimated how “walkable” this campus was and my dorm is apparently the farthest away from … well, everything. The blue cart that held my belongings became my personal enemy. After finally getting all the boxes into it by myself, I slipped and fell into the cart. Without my family here, I had to depend on the seniors who helped me get a ride to my dorm. I cried a second time.
In my room, I proceeded to wipe everything with disinfectant and made a hand sanitizer station right by the door (necessities for a pandemic college move-in). I carried all my packages in from the mail center through the rain looking like a drowned rat. I cried for the last time.
By the time I was done arranging my room, it was dinner time. It wasn’t pretty. I did not take a picture. My eyes were still puffy from crying. One could say I had experienced an irony of my own fantasy.
Good job on surviving, Cynthia :)
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