New Location, New Life

The location of where one lives changes ones perception of both one’s life and the world in multiple ways. The location of where I live has changed drastically in the past few days. I am now living in a new region, new state and new community. I have gone from living in the Midwest, in Illinois in a suburb of Chicago, Oak Park. When I lived in Oak Park I had many friends and family surrounding me, I had my own room and a car at my disposal. I was able to go anywhere, without even a thought. I also could eat whenever I wanted and could basically eat anything that my heart desired, without having much difficulty getting it.

Now that I am a member of the Winter Park and Rollins College community my way of life has completely changed. I am now no longer surrounded by friends and family. My perception of the amount of difficulty it takes to make friends has changed drastically. I went from thinking it was easy to make friends to thinking it is actually quite challenging. In Oak Park I have had the same friends since first grade. I took for granted how hard it is to make friends. I have not had to make friends for over ten years now. When I joined the Rollins community though, I realized how difficult it is to make friends and that it takes a lot of effort to get to know people. My point of view on making friends has changed radically since I got to Rollins.

Not only has my relationship with friends changed, but my relationship has changed with my family too. My point of view of how close I am with my family has also changed. I always believed I was close with my family and I always cared about them deeply, but I never realized how much I would miss them. In Oak Park I would see my family everyday and did not think twice about talking to them. However, now that I am at Rollins I value the time I spend talking with my family so much more. I now realize that family is way more important to me than I ever thought it was because of how much I miss them since I have arrived at Rollins.

One of the smaller, but still important things that have changed since I got to Rollins is my perception of how much I took it for granted being able to go anywhere whenever I wanted. In Oak Park I was able to take my car to go to a friends house, go out to eat or go to the mall. My situation at Rollins is not the same, I cannot just get up and leave Rollins. Some days when I wake up I would just like to get up and go out breakfast in Orlando or just leave Rollins in general. I think I never understood what it was like to be stuck in one place. My point of view of the value in having an easy means of transportation has changed greatly. I never realized how much I value being able to just get up and leave.

Multiple things have changed in my life since I have gotten to Rollins, but they are good changes. My perception of my life has changed greatly since I have moved. My perception has made me value many things in my life that I had in Oak Park, which I now have realized I had taken for granted before starting school at Rollins. Although my location has changed drastically, the climate, the region and much more is all new, but it is not just the new location that has affected me, but my way of life has had to change, due to the fact that I am in college.