"One Second Before Awakening": Why being single your first semester of college TOTALLY ROCKS!

Okay, I’m feeling a little controversial today, so I’ve decided to let you in on a bit of information that I wish had registered with me before coming to college. Coming into Transy, I had been in a relationship for two years, and like any good girlfriend might, I instantly refuted everyone who told me, “It’s never going to last.” Now, this post is not going to be telling you that you’re never going to make it, but rather, hopefully serve to help reassure you (using my own personal story) if you’re entering college as a bachelor(ette), or find your relationship on the rocks a few months after you arrive here.

Like I said, I was firm in my belief that my boyfriend at the time and I would be able to last, because we had the advantage of closeness—he only lived 20 minutes away. But, the nature of Transy made that 20 minutes seem like 200, and it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. When I arrived here, there were -so- many people eager to begin new friendships with me, hang out with me, explore the town with me, but having to drive 20 minutes away every day for hours severely limited my ability to get to know my new family (because, seriously, you’ll start to think of some of your fellow Transy students as such). I found myself slowly falling further and further behind all my other peers in building relationships with my new classmates; I missed out on all kinds of campus events, missed chances to join organizations and do community service. It’s no secret that the further you are from Transy’s campus, the less integrated you become in the close community—and it didn’t help that my boyfriend didn’t go here and didn’t understand.

So this distancing continued to happen until finally, after 2 ½ years together, we called it quits due to some rather unfortunate circumstances, but also because we were on different paths—I wanted to be involved with the university I had fallen in love with, and, because he attended a different college, he didn’t understand and resented me for sometimes “choosing school over him.” Of course, I was devastated at first, but my Transy community picked me right back up.

Now I’m not saying that this will happen to you. Indeed, I have some close friends that are in my class (juniors) and are still with their high school sweethearts. You may be one of those rare couples who are so close that nothing could get in the way of your relationship, but if you find yourself in my situation, or if you’re concerned about coming to college all alone, here are just a few reasons why being single in college can TOTALLY ROCK: