You don’t know who you are, until you know who you are when you’re alone.

This isn’t to say that you need to completely cut off your support network in order to “find yourself”. But it’s the little things about living away from home that have taught me so much about myself in this first year at UBC.  Nothing made me feel more adult or more alone than having to buy cough medicine for myself. Standing in a drugstore aisle, trying to figure out the difference between Tylenol Cold and Tylenol Flu (there is none), I realized a few things.

1. Medication is expensive. Avoid getting colds like they’re the plague.

2. I’ve come to the point in my journey where no one is going to hold my hand anymore. As bad as I am at making decisions and as much as I love second, third and fourth opinions, there are some decisions that I have to make on my own.

This year has revealed some truths about my character, some of which I really didn’t want to know. Unless I’ve got a good incentive, I’m often five minutes late to anything and I hate it. I’m also not nearly as tidy as I thought (who knew my mom snuck in my room and tidied up while I was at school?) and apparently the obscene amount of time I take to get ready in the mornings is not normal. Living with a roommate exposes these things.

Roommates also bring out the weird in you.

My roommate and friend, C has taught me all kinds of lessons. Since we’re from different ethno-cultural backgrounds, we both get to learn about countries across the globe. Our different faculties but overlapping classes means we’ve had some pretty heated discussions over the term. She, along with the other friends I’ve made this year have taught me what deep friendship can look like and what a great thing that is. Being at such a large university means you are bound to find people who share at least some of the same interests you do.

I am surrounded by learners, thinkers and doers, change-makers and innovators. I am often inspired by the people I get to call my friends and other students doing awesome things on this campus. You WILL find people who want to discuss foreign policy, feminism, Kanye West’s genius or whatever else you want to talk about.

 Truer words have never been spoken.

It won’t happen overnight. Like I  said in the beginning, this blog is titled In All Honesty for a reason. I won’t lie to you, the first little while is tough. That could mean a couple days to a couple months for you. Whether you’re a commuter or you’re living on campus, you’re still in a brand new place with thousands of people you’ve never met before. And even if you’re a returning student, everyone is still in the same boat during the first few weeks of school. New classes just mean new opportunities to meet people.

I underestimated just how lonely it would be to move to another province and have to start over again. I once heard that it takes two years for people to become fully acclimatized to a new situation. That sounds like a long time, but then I thought about how Grades 9 and 12 were the best years of my junior high and high school experiences, respectively. These things take time, so hang in there even if it sucks at the beginning.  This post is getting real long now, but I just wanted to stress that your experience at this school is what you make of it. I don’t regret choosing UBC. This year, I joined electives and applied for positions that made me realize how passionate I am about writing. My res experience wasn’t the best it could be and that was because I didn’t put the effort in. I made a snap decision to join a club that connected me to some of the best friends I’ve ever had.

I am so excited to come back in September because I know how much I’ve learned and grown in just eight months. To returning students: congrats on finishing exams and thanks for being part of what makes our community such an interesting place to learn. To new students: get hyped.