When people first hear that I’m from California, they typically ask me, “Why would you leave California to study in Ohio?” I have heard this ever since I was a first year at Wooster, and I still have yet to develop a standard response. Depending on my mood that day, I may answer with, “Because it’s the top mentored undergraduate institution in the country!” I may claim, “Because I value mentored undergraduate research and Princeton rejected my application,” or if I am in a mood, “Because I love corn.”
Like most students who come here, especially those who traveled greater distances than me, I arrived my first year fearful that this campus would never feel like home to me.
After all, how are you expected to accurately predict which college is best for you after a handful of Google searches and a brief overnight trip (if you are lucky enough to be able to do so)? Picking a college is like jumping from a cliff into a lake while blindfolded; it is a giant leap of faith. Not knowing what awaits you as you rapidly fall, you can easily find yourself panicking and doubting your readiness. This is normal.
I have grown familiar with humility and humbleness here at Wooster. I once fell down the Lowry staircase in front of the entire football team and their recruits. I have had my fair share of unexpectedly difficult exams, and once I even accidentally asked for a “grande Pike’s Place” in Old Main in front of a professor. My point is, messing up is inevitable, but failure is not. You may not feel like you are ready to take on college life yet, and that is okay. There are roughly two thousand reasons why failure is not inevitable.
These reasons are the people who will make Wooster home for you.
In my four years at Wooster, I have made the most incredible, irreplaceable friendships. At Wooster, people will dumpster-dive with you to help you find your lost retainers. They will tirelessly help you as you campaign for campus leadership positions. They will get you coffee when you run out of flex and swipe you into Lowry when you run out of swipes. They will even hold the Scot Center doors open for you when you are yards away, just because they are that nice.
So yes, you may feel like you are falling, incredibly afraid of what will catch you. You might be like me, and be afraid that this campus will never feel like home to you. But it will, I assure you. This is nothing I can show you; it is something you will have to experience in your own time here.
I may not be able to provide a strong answer when people ask me why I left California to study in Ohio, but I sure have a strong answer for when people ask me why I stayed. It’s the people. It’s always the people.
Annabelle Hopkins, a Contributing Writer for the Voice, can be reached for comment at AHopkins19@wooster.edu.