As I sat in my favorite hometown restaurant over summer break, something felt different, but I couldn’t figure out what. I was in the town where I’ve lived for most of my life. I was surrounded by the four girls I was inseparable with all through high school. I was eating my favorite sandwich (a grilled tuna Caesar wrap) and yet something felt off. As we sat laughing and catching up on our past few months of college, a thought ran through my mind: “Take me back to Cornell!”
My first semester of college, I spent most of my time homesick. I would constantly compare my times here to the crazy adventures I had with my girlfriends back home, and thought that nothing in college could ever compare. Keeping in touch was my main priority; if it wasn’t text messages and phone calls, it was Facebook posts and video chats. Fall break and Thanksgiving were the highlights of my semester: a chance to see old friends and to go back to what I’ve been comfortable with for most of my life.
The problem was that I wasn’t living in the moment and embracing change. Cornell could provide so many amazing opportunities, but I wasn’t letting them happen.
Second semester, I decided it was time to try new things. I rushed a sorority, attended more on-campus events, and let myself get closer to my college friends. I started to enjoy myself so much that I wasn’t even thinking about home. People I’d known for only a few months became closer to me than friends I’d had for years. We were going through the same things, from stressful prelims to crazy frat parties. We spent all our time together, from meals to study sessions to trips to the mall. I was starting to mature, and my friends from college were growing up along with me.
So when I finally went home to see my high school friends last summer, something was missing: Cornell. They couldn’t relate when I talked about prelims, gorges, or late-night runs to the Louie's Lunch truck. I’m not saying friendships can’t withstand distance or survive big changes, and I love to look back on the memories I made with my high school friends. But the truth is that the last real conversation I had with them was that lunch last summer.
College has a way of pulling you away from the familiar and introducing you to things you never could have imagined. If you’re willing to leave your comfort zone and let it happen, college can truly be the best years of your life. It may have taken a year, but Ithaca is becoming my home—and my Cornell friends are becoming my family.
— Jillian Knowles ’15