There’s something really frightening about change. That’s the first thing most people think about when the thought of changing their environment, their friends, and their first language comes to their attention. “You’re going to Paris? Why?” I really didn’t understand that question for a long time before I left. In fact, I didn’t understand it until my parents left me in my brand new gorgeous Paris apartment all by myself. I think that’s when it started to hit me. The reason why people don’t like change. Not only was I in a new country, where I didn’t know a single person, but I was accustomed to a very different kind of college experience. The kind where everything is pretty much accessible, where there is a real campus, and where your friends are never too far away. The kind where you had a sense of community, and a sense of belonging. As excited as I was to start a new chapter of my life, in the city I had always dreamed of living, it was harder than I expected. If I learned anything from leaving everything I knew behind, it was that change is a very necessary thing. It forces you to realize what you are really after, and what it is that you are not willing to change about yourself. It took leaving Rutgers to find out that it’s exactly where I need to be. And it took experiencing change to know that I am on the right track, that I’m not missing out on different experiences, and that I am exactly where I am meant to be.
Adey Zegeye is a contributor for the Rutgers Review.