Anyone else have a child who is having a hard time making the transition?

EmmyBet
Sat, 05 Nov 2011 13:04:02 +0000

Yay! I am so happy your S made a thoughtful decision and listened to his head, heart and soul. How wonderful!

My D is much better, too. She can still rattle off plenty of things that bother her, but she’s definitely jumped into life at school with both feet now, and is feeling many of the rewards.

We had a great visit a couple of weeks ago. She was amazingly better than she was when her sister visited 2 weeks prior to that. And now, after another 2 weeks at school, she is really past the transition phase, I believe.

When I was there, I never asked her directly if she wanted to leave or transfer. She said lots of things that showed me she knew this was all part of the adjustment period - she talked about next semester, next year, even junior year study abroad and more. She also said that a couple of kids who are talking about transferring are “making a mistake,” that they haven’t seen all of the opportunities this school and program can provide. She told me many goals she has for herself and said she also was ready to broaden her activities and social life - for example, she felt ready to hop a train to the City much more often, now that she was more experienced, whether with friends or even alone (safely, of course).

She also had cleared up some issues on the homefront, some strange miscommunications with friends here, including the BF. She’s feeling much more stable with that, too.

I think she’s also understanding that this was a normal situation, one that many kids experience, and that she can also get involved in helping make the situation better on campus in general as well as the adjustment easier for the next round of freshmen.