Out of my hometown friend group, I have the latest move in day. In my mind, I’m pretty impartial to this because frankly, more time to prepare at home alongside my dog is not something to complain about. What I didn’t realize however, is just how difficult of a role social media would play in this transition.
I’d like to think that I don’t spend an obscene amount of time on social media, but this week in particular, I’ve found myself checking it more frequently, to try to get a sense of how my high school friends are adjusting to their new schools. And by the looks of their stories and posts, they seem to be thriving.
The ‘common sense’ portion of my brain reminds me that their ‘night out’ snaps are not a completely accurate representation of how they are, but their smiling faces and excitement still fills me with fear. What if I cannot adjust like them?
Since I was very little, transitions, of any kind, have always been hard for me. For example, ever since elementary school, I get the ‘Sunday night blues’, a name made up by my mom, which is just another way of saying ‘anxiety triggered by a weekend to weekday transition’.
So as you can probably imagine, the concept of moving out and living on my own (with two strangers no less) is a massive transition which (yes, you guessed it!) results in a massive amount of anxiety, and let me tell you, seeing all my friends go through it so ridiculously easily on Instagram DOES NOT HELP!
Obviously I know that what is posted is just the (glamorous/filtered) tip of the iceberg, but when you are already filled to the brim with anxiety and you see something even just slightly scary, it causes you to overflow with fear.
It’s not that I want people to post pictures of them having a mental breakdown, I just need some validation that I’m not the only one losing my shit.
Per the advice of my grandmother, “if you want something done right, stop complaining and do it yourself”, I hope to (virtually) validate any and everyone that needs it by sharing my completely unfiltered transition from ‘high school graduate’ to ‘college freshman’.
