The Leap to College

Imagine being in an entirely new city with a bunch of people whom you have never known all around you – a new hostel room to stay, a new roommate to share it with, lunch and dinner no longer with your family but people from all over the country. This is how hostel life feels like.

Fresh out of school, we’re  always used to being told what to do. But at college, there’s no one to push you around to do stuff anymore, no more of your mom running behind you to make you sit and study. It is adulting at its prime, anything and everything that you do is out of your own initiative.

But its not all gloom and despair, I’ve learnt some of life’s greatest lessons in these three months of my first trimester at college. I’ve finally learnt to manage things on my own, take responsibility, travel alone and most importantly - balance studies and self-care. Health is a legit concern when you’re living out of home, but I guess learning to keep yourself healthy is just part of the game.

I’m not gonna lie here, but sometimes I do wonder if life could have been easier if not for the academic rigor of my college. Why suffer so much stress when its easier to stay at home, to go to any college in my own city with a comparatively relaxed study pattern? But when I look back to these three months and see all that I’ve learnt to do- literally two research papers and a moot, along with the bunch of new skills that I’ve learnt- I wonder if any other college would have pushed me to do so much in life. The transformation that I see in myself is a pleasant surprise even to me to be very honest.

And the one thing that kept me together in these three months were good friends. Every senior I had talked to before coming to college never failed to mention how important good friends were at NLS. And I’m glad I have made a great set of friends, ones who are there when you really need them. That’s the thing about hostels, everyone is alone out there, and you know how it feels to be in an entirely new setting. So people are always there for each other, at least my friends definitely were.

The newfound freedom is definitely sweet, giving you the space to explore and try new things out, make mistakes and learn out of them. All said and done, these three months have been a roller coaster, to think that its going to be the same for the next half a decade is daunting enough. But it’s just the first trimester, and people say that things do get better ( or we would probably get used to it : )). Be that as it may, the one thing that keeps me going is that people have been doing this ever since NLSIU started in 1986, can’t we get through it in 2023?