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Moving Back into Soka

The view from my new dorm room's window. There are three tall, groomed cypress trees placed at intervals along the photo. In the background, there are tan residence halls with prominent windows. It is a bright, sunny day.

Hello!

I am writing this blog post from my very cluttered new dorm room. My plan for September is to blog at least 3 times/week, but any consistent post schedule I had planned has been foiled by the chaos of moving back into Soka. I think we'll try Wednesday/Friday/Sunday, and then regroup if that plan is unsuccessful.

This is a video of all of the boxes, clutter, and genuine chaos that made up my room yesterday afternoon. Since then, I have made some progress on cleaning/unpacking, but much of that progress has been a result of shoving most of my stuff in my shelving unit.

Despite the stress of returning to school/setting up my room again/unpacking all of my stuff, I am so glad to be back! On study abroad, I often found myself wishing that I had my old life back. When I returned, it was a little weird to be gone for the summer rather than going back to Soka and seeing all of my friends.

Going to a university where study abroad is required for all students is a bit strange. Here is a timeline of my Soka experience:

  • First year: Make a few friends. Feel a little displaced and uncomfortable.
  • Second year: Make many friends! Become more confident and secure in friendships.
  • Third year, first semester: Some of your friends have graduated, and others are on study abroad. Strengthen friendships with the people that remain. Try to restructure your social circles to fill the spaces your old friends have left.
  • Third year, second semester: Go on study abroad. Most of your friends are at Soka, without you. Spend time with people in your study abroad program, and try to keep in touch with old friends.
  • Fourth year, first 24 hours: Congratulations! You have returned to Soka! Your graduating class is all together! Also, remember those people that you bonded with last year to fill the abyss left by friends who are gone? A lot of them are on study abroad now. And, remember, you have only one year left before you have to start making friends all over again.
Anyway, it feels so good to be back to my old life. I was talking to one of my friends yesterday about how study abroad is such a transformative experience in many ways, and how strange it feels to return to the same life that I had pre-study-abroad. Like, I have gone from figuring out how to communicate in a different language and having access to the independence that public transportation provides to living in the young-person equivalent of a retirement home* and only having access to businesses within a 5-mile radius of the university.

Hopefully, my productivity and work ethic will conspire to make it possible for me to post again on Friday. Until then, I wish you all the best.
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