Coming to college for the first time isn’t an easy feat for everyone, and leaving for a month just to return again can be just as difficult.
Often times, many students can experience different stages of adjustment, just as there are many stages of denial.
Below are examples of feelings students may undergo in their first weeks back.
1. Denial
Many don’t want to accept the fact that their extended break is ending, and they have to get back in the mindset of doing schoolwork. They also may not want to leave their homes and families, perhaps not knowing when they would be able to see them again. So, they experience the denial phase where they continue to deny they have to go back in hopes that it will prolong the inevitable.
2. Excitement
While leaving home can be stressful and not the most fun, people can still experience a lot of excitement about returning to college and seeing the friends they’ve made. Some may also be excited about the classes they are taking that pertain to their majors or minors.
3. Sadness
The sadness stage can often be connected to the denial phase. People can be sad they are leaving home or sad they won’t get their mom’s cooking anymore.
4. Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy is a common feeling among a lot of college students from looking at the list of books needed this semester and thinking about the amount of money they cost to actually spending that money. Bankruptcy can often be a feeling that continues through the whole semester as new expenses appear.
5. Happiness
Happiness is one of the feelings many may experience the most during the first days coming back before their schedule begins to overflow. Between reorganizing their rooms to going to dinner and catching up with friends, college isn’t just work. It can be a happy experience.
6. Anxiety
Anxiety comes with everything, especially new schedules, new professors and new people. Many may have trouble sleeping during the first week back worrying about what to expect in their new classes, and whether or not they will have time to spend time with the people they are closest to.
7. Confusion
While everyone experienced the New Year, perhaps sleeping or celebrating, that does not mean writing 2019 has become habit yet. Many can expect to continue writing 2018 until February.
8. Adjustment
Adjustment can also be another common feeling that lingers. Students had to adapt to college life in the fall semester, and now they have to do it again. Netflix binge days, free laundry and unlimited snacks are harder to obtain on a college campus.
9. Exhaustion
Having a schedule is hard to stick to and even harder to create after having the freedom of sleeping in the middle of the day and eating at midnight. Exhaustion can be a common feeling as everyone attempts to readjust to their new schedules and working long into the night to finish projects and papers.
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