This story was featured in Horizons, a special edition of The Crimson White for freshmen and transfer students. Horizons can be found on newsstands across campus, or online here.

After weeks — maybe months, if you’re like me — of packing and anticipating, move-in day is here. Maybe it’s over by the time you discover the newsstands planted outside your residence hall, and you’ve already settled into your new home. 

Hopefully the stress of move-in has dissipated by the time you’re reading this, and you’ve started to explore the sprawling campus around you. And if you haven’t, what’s stopping you? 

I’ll tell you what stopped me. 

Campus is big, and also kind of scary. At least, that’s how it felt during my first months on campus. I didn’t think I fit into the mold of a UA student. I never planned to join a sorority and I couldn’t name anyone on the football roster other than Tua. From my uninformed freshman perspective, that was The University of Alabama: Greek life, football and parties.

And it is, to some extent. All those stereotypical features of this campus are there, and they influence our school in important ways. If you came to Tuscaloosa for those things, then embrace them. 

But if you were motivated to enroll here by something else — generous scholarships, proximity to home, family tradition — and you’re still skeptical about your compatibility with this campus, I encourage you to keep trying. 

I spent months trying to find my slice of campus and failing miserably, so I stopped. For me, giving up looked like retreating to my dorm to avoid FOMO on weekends. It looked like making weekend trips away from Tuscaloosa to reconnect with old friends instead of trying to find new ones. 

 If I have one piece of advice for you, it’s this: do not be discouraged. You’ll likely face rejection and fear and uncertainty this year, and when you do, you must keep going.  

This campus and this city are full of surprises, but you won’t find them if you don’t look. That’s the perk of a big, “scary” campus: if you look around, you’re bound to find someone or something you didn’t know was there. Better yet, you’ll open yourself to experiences you intentionally ignored and realize you were looking in the wrong place.