Living at home, you get everything you need. Well not necessarily, but growing up with your parents is much of a treat. Not having to worry about paying the mortgage, providing groceries for the house, paying the gardener, and numerous other expenses I know nothing about. So you have been waiting to move away from home for the past say 4 years, and the time finally comes and you get accepted into a college and you get to move into the dorms. It's a relief when you find out you can even get your own room, just share the suite like an apartment. The bills are paid for, your parents support you more then ever because they want you to succeed in college and more so in life.
Little do people know, your forced to live and get along with a bunch of strangers. Living at home is completely different because you live with ones you love and have known your whole life. But now, you are forced to live with people and the only common thing between you and the people may be that you attend the same college. You could live with people from different cities, different states, and possibly even different countries; boy what a cultural shock that would be. People have in their heads that they can't wait to meet their "lifelong friends" their "sisters they never had", but once they get settled into the dorm they are in for complete shock.
People are used to where they live and the people around them, and that is why they have several common interests and ideas, which unite them as friends. The people are college are diverse. They are completely different from what you expected and that comes as a shock. Disappointment come when your "suitmate" is a slob, stuck-up bitch, rude, and a complete nightmare. So besides one, you could see yourself being friends with everyone else. But when your in a suite with 8 girls, alliances are being made, back stabbing and gossip runs under the shut doors. It is then when you realize, you are at this huge University alone. You miss your friends and even more you miss your family. It is then when you realize how amazing your home is and how it will always be your home no matter what. Yes, for most adaptable people, it is easy to get-along with others, but getting along isn't enough to consider a person friend. getting along almost means tolerating a person. A friend shows empathy, compassion, longing, and wanting to be with you.
My experience at SDSU was nothing like I expected. I did have a horrible roommate, I did "get along" with the rest of them, and I was lucky enough to meet an amazing friend, my long lost sister, and i loved her. Even though we lived 5 hours away from each other, we had college and we were in it together until the end. The past year came tumbling down when she decided to go to a University in Mexico, and I never saw her again. I was hit with reality the hard way and was reminded once again that my family wouldn't leave me like that. Not even would my friends from home, or my boyfriend.They could never leave me and that it because that love is greater than any friend you meet at college or person on the street.
