Being Alive
In just a few days, I'll be on a plane to Los Angeles to begin my first year at USC, and I've never felt such a confounding rush of fear. Throughout high school, I always daydreamed of going somewhere adventurous and different, but now that the change I so fervently sought out is becoming a reality, I'm overwhelmed with uncertainty. Taking an enormous leap into young-adulthood is invigorating, but this new freedom comes at the price of the familiarity and stability of home. Making a new set of friends, being away from loved ones, plunging into rigorous coursework, and managing change gracefully are all things that seem harder as they near the present. On top of that, everyone has rigid expectations of what the "quintessential college experience" should look like, and these high standards make the transition seem even more stressful. In any event, the pressure to make the next four years the "best ones" of our lives, along with our misguided tendency t...