Article
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Transitions
Moving from family home to college dorm was a "surprisingly easy adjustment"

By Phil Ryan, George Washington University

It was a warm, humid August day in northern New Jersey as I was preparing to leave for college. My room was quite messy. There were boxes in every corner, overflowing with shirts, shorts, pants, accessories and the like. I was unsure of how well I'd packed. "Do I need more?" I continually asked. As much as my mom assured me I could easily live off of what's in those bins and boxes, there was still an inkling of insecurity.

In hindsight, it seems pretty stupid to care that much about something so minute. The times that I would ask my parents about having enough belts or what kinds of cups and plates I needed were just moments that I was covering up my anxiety about leaving home. After all, I was heading to Washington D.C. of all places, so I could easily pick up anything I didn't need. I got to thinking: Were there other reasons I felt the need to overpack? Maybe I was trying to impress people with how much I brought. Maybe I was concerned that everyone else would have so much.

As move in day approached I felt tinges of nervousness mixed with excitement. Having talked with my friends on iChat, often quite late at night, I felt fine about what I had packed. It was times like these that I wondered how people lived without the Internet. The assurance that I knew how others had dealt with the process was an incredible relief. Yet my nervousness about move-in, whether it be the logistics, how my parents would act around my new roommates, or the dreadful thought of what minutiae I would forget to pack, still persisted.

The time finally came to leave home and travel down to D.C. to begin a completely new adventure for the next four years of my life. Sitting in the passenger seat of the car, my parents crammed in as well, my mood could only be described as ecstatic. I was confident that George Washington would be able to run move-in like clockwork; it's only worked who-knows-how-many years. My arrival was swift, and the fact that I was greeted by knowledgeable and helpful assistants only made me feel better about the day. The rest of move-in went smoothly, and I was honestly surprised at how calmly my parents reacted to the whole situation.

The transition between home, with all its amenities, comfort, and security, and dorm life--full of parties, communal living, and newfound independence--has been a surprisingly easy adjustment. As an only child, my fears of homesickness and not being able to cope living with hundreds of other freshmen in one building have proved to be unfounded. What struck me the most was the willingness of my roommates, some of whom are polar opposites to me in terms of personality and appearance, to treat like any other friend and not ignore me since I'm not a football player or the world's most intense partier. My house proctor (essentially the same as a residential advisor), a Jamaican cricket player from Massachusetts, made sure to come to our room later in the day and check up on my roommates and me and ensure that we were settling in easily. Since the door was open, a number of people who I had met at orientation stopped in to say "hello." As an only child, this was a completely new, but welcome, experience.

Still, I feel in a way that my freshman dorm experience is not a true one. My dorm is the newest on campus; it opened this year and is possibly the most heavenly freshman residence hall ever designed. We have common rooms in a four-person suite with an extra-large bathroom, a small kitchen with a larger one on each floor, and modern washers and driers. I don't truly have a roommate (suitemate is a more suitable term, but it sounds odd), so I wonder how I will adjust next year if I do.

Through all of this, I've come to the realization that the transition from my bedroom, somewhere I know fully, to a new dorm a four-hour car ride away was the opposite of what I expected. Instead of feeling trapped and alone, I feel like I've been absorbed into a caring and vibrant community. Maybe the fact that I yearned so much to leave suburban New Jersey, my home for so long, aided in such a feeling, but I could never have imagined feeling so happy in a new environment.