Week Six of our Diablog: which of the following have posed the greatest challenge to you in making the transition to college?

Starting new relationships was the greatest challenge when making the transition to college. The friendships that I made in high school were great and leaving them in the summer was one of the hardest things. The first few weeks I found myself comparing new people I met to the friends I had at home. As bad as it sounds, I put a standard up. I was trying to find a group of people that replicated my friends back home, but I knew it was not possible. I realized that I needed to create new relationships with people for who they are rather than how the compare.

I think I found this the greatest challenge of my transition because I felt that if I let go then the relationships at home would not be what they once were. But new relationships did not mean I had to let go of the old ones. This realization helped me overcome this challenge. I was not the only one creating new relationships, but my friends were too. We were all in the same type of situation. This idea made it easier to realize new relationships are a great thing. I now have my school friends and my friends from home. The situation was never “out with the old and in with the new” but as my friends who did Girl Scouts would say, “Make new friends but keep the old”.

I picked choosing a college as the hardest challenge I faced when transitioning because I was lucky enough to have three different options for school. Part of what made the choice especially difficult was the difference in scholarships I got from each school – one of the schools I was accepted to was a city college located in New York (my home) and the program I got into meant everything was free.  I was deciding between that school and BMC – where I would still have to pay some tuition and room and board, so finances definitely played a role, but ultimately I chose BMC because I felt that getting away from the city was really important in my growth as a student and I prioritized the different life experience over what I would have to pay. 
I will be leaving BMC without student debt and I don't need to be in the work study program, though I will probably get a job on campus next year, if not next term. I'm extremely lucky to be in this situation. I do realize, though, that many of my friends didn't have the luxury to choose a school despite its financial package and it affects the way I approach my education. I value the fact that I can attend BMC because I know many people probably would have had to pick the school with a free program, even if they prefered BMC, because they couldn't afford to live with student loans or worry about juggling work study and school.