Newsflash: It’s not a walk in the park.

People say that university life is a whole new experience. It's like for the first time in your life, you're exiting the little safety bubble you were in during your school days. As a fresher, a homebody, and an introvert, this new experience is terrifying.

To be honest, I was excited to face the next part of my life. My mother was always sad because I was soon going to leave. I was extremely attached to my home as it was my comfort place. But I was also looking forward to the beginning of a new life. But on the day of moving, it suddenly hit me. I'm terrified. When my parents were leaving after helping me settle into the foreign "home" in which I was going to be living for the next 4 years, I wanted to go back with them. After seeing Amma’s teary face I struggled to keep a smile on my face for her. The unshed tears finally escaped once they left.

New day, new place, new... people. I felt as if I didn't fit in. And dealing with different people was the real challenge. In the past, it would only be for a short amount of time that I had to interact with such a vast amount of people with varying attitudes. Plus, at the end of the day, I'd return to the comfort of my home and rant to my Amma about the day's social adventure. But here I can't do that. And having to live with different people in one confined space, where every person is missing home one way or another, is truly a pickle. A sure recipe for unsolvable arguments I would say, where no one is right or wrong...

The responsibilities. As the youngest, the baby of the family, (not considering the physical size) I've never had to take on so many responsibilities. Waking up alone, having to manage finances, planning meals, and the nightmare most of us dread - washing clothes and cleaning. Now I truly understand why adults want to go back to their childhood again. I wanted to grow up soon because I wanted to get out of school. If I can go back in time, I would smack that idiot on the head. It's not that I miss my school days. But I miss the freedom we had as children. Our sole responsibility was to complete our school education well. Unlike now.

However, it's not all bad, I realised. New people and new places meant new stories and new chapters. It made life a tad more exciting. And exciting can be interpreted both negatively and positively. And it's the best opportunity to practice socialising, dealing with different opinions, and respecting each other.

In the beginning, I told myself that I'd get used to it soon. I've been here for a few weeks now and truthfully the situation has changed a little bit, for both better and for worse. The positive change is that I'm enjoying being friends with so many different people. The negative one is the clashes, getting accommodated into new places and people.  There aren't any choices in this matter. It's not like I can just get up and leave. This is my dream. I worked for this. And somewhere along the way, I'm going to have to do this at some point in my life anyways. I'll see it as a blessing in disguise and face the challenges head-on.

I think most university students have gone through this. Maybe with some tweaks to the story here and there but nevertheless the same. The main issue here is becoming true adults.

We officially became adults legally when we turned 18. But not gonna lie, most of us thought that, that was what adulthood was. Many of you must've been excited. But till you pass out from school you're not truly adults. Turning 18 in our country is like getting into the front passenger seat rather than the back seat. And true adulthood is when you sit behind the wheel.

It'll take some time to get used to. Bless us if we manage to. But I'm hoping that however long it takes we'll someday manage to shine brightly steering into our lane, by ourselves.