The five stages of first-year grief
Ever since coming to Duke I have felt like there are 40 tabs open in my brain at once, all of them incoherently unrelated and as soon as one is closed, another immediately opens. I believe that being a first-year is unique in this way—you are always working to understand this new way of living while simultaneously grieving your old way of living. Even if college was immediately everything you wished for and more, you still have to face, conquer, and make peace with adjustments from your old way of living.