Transition back to college is never easy

When my sister left for her first year of college last fall, I told her that the first two months would be the worst. After that, I assured her, it would get better. Now she's a sophomore, I'm a senior, and I'm realizing that I should have given her one more warning: the beginning of the any year — be it freshman or sophomore, junior or senior — is never completely smooth.

In fact, I have found the transition back to college to be thoroughly difficult. It's true that there is nothing is like freshman year. But it's also true that there is nothing like living at Princeton. One might think that because one is a sophomore (or a senior), one might 'know the ropes' a little better. But this year I've used more Add/Drop forms for this semester than in all my six previous semesters combined.

I think part of the issue here is that we expect for it to be an easy transition. And why shouldn't we? We have friends; we know the campus; we have people to sit with in the dining hall; we know not to take Friday classes. Yet, there is a certain period during our first few days on campus where we have to re-establish our Princeton routine. And without this routine, you are almost as lost as that lonely freshman sitting alone in the dining hall. This past week, before the clubs had opened, I found myself sitting at Frist eating a piece of pizza by myself. I realized that my solitude did not come from lack of friends (or I hoped not). Rather, it came from the fact that all the people I knew were busy off doing their own things: setting up their rooms, buying books, attending meetings. I hadn't yet found my groove for the year. I hadn't yet figured out when both my friends and I would be free, when my classes met, when I could get to the gym or go for a run.

It was unsettling until I realized that I was still adjusting, that I was in transition. And transitions are never easy. But since I was in transition, it was OK to feel out of sorts, to feel a little "lost," like I didn't really know what was going on. Except this was not the feeling that I expected. As a senior, I figured I'd know everything and feel comfortable from the very first second on campus. And the disparity between the actual and the expected, the large percent error of my predicted feelings, was what was making me feel so uneasy.

When I think about it, though, I should feel unsettled and a bit uneasy while I'm transitioning back to school. Freshmen aren't the only ones who should get this privilege. All of us upperclassmen are also trying out something new: new rooms, new classes, new patterns of living. We haven't been here for three months and have gotten used to our lives away from our familiar campus. And though the campus as a whole seems familiar to us, we are lacking the tiny landmarks that we come to make Princeton our own. I'm used to walking home to Brown like I did last year, and I'm used to having my friends living in certain rooms. Now, I have to detour to a new building to find my own room and I'm still trying to figure out where everyone is living. Fortunately, I'm getting used to it very quickly.

This column is not meant to complain about my first few days on campus, but rather to point out that everyone, no matter your age and year, must and will experience some kind of transition in moving to a new place, even if that place is one you've been before. But don't worry freshmen, the transition is nothing like the one you're experiencing now. Those first two months really are the worst, and you only have six more weeks to go . . . John Lurz is an English major from Lutherville, Md. He can be reached at johnlurz@princeton.edu.