Familiarity
As I’m writing this I’m sitting on the grass of Tufts’ academic quad. Only a few hours prior I took my first steps on campus since leaving it in early May. Ironically, I entered the campus on the exact same path I had left it after my freshman year: the driveways surrounding South Hall, the dorm I lived in last year and will live in again this year.
Despite the construction currently underway, the spirit of Tufts is exactly as I left it. Because after all, it isn’t really the buildings that make this place home. It’s the fact that I’m comfortable just lying in the grass right in the middle of campus, tanning and not really caring how I look. And it’s the acceptance from the other students who don’t judge me for doing so. It’s the rush of adrenaline I get from swiping my ID card at the bookstore and purchasing apparel with the exclusive currency JumboCash. And the pride I feel wearing that purchase with my school’s name emblazoned across the front.
I will admit that a few minutes ago I forgot where the cutlery is located in the Tower Café, but I did remember where to throw out my trash. And as I performed that ordinary task, I felt a very powerful feeling: familiarity. I didn’t have to spend a panicky few minutes searching for a garbage can; I stood up and remembered where to go. And for some, this probably seems like an incredibly small feat. But for me, after a hectic year of trying new things and hoping to find where I belong, it was a huge accomplishment. Tufts is no longer a wild terrain, imploring me to explore. Tufts is my backyard.
I am sure that the next three years will bring a plethora of challenges. I am sure I will see new faces, meet new people, make new friends. I will try and fail. I will reach out and be rejected. But through it all, knowing that I’m doing all of this in a place of familiarity and comfort, I will be doing it with a voice in my head saying “I got this.”
Because I know that Tufts has my back.
(And just as I wrote that last sentence, the sprinklers came on. Thanks for waiting for me, Tufts.)