Much like the majority of my peers, I began my college career as a timid, anxious freshman; however, as all of my peers began college with a multitude of friends that had carried over from high school, I began college alone. When I was a sophomore in high school, I made the conscious decision to graduate high school when I was a junior—thus, completing high school in three years instead of four. Though this move would look ambitious on my academic resume, I had failed to factor in the social implications. I had put myself into a position of attending college at the young age of seventeen, unaccompanied as a result of leaving all of my friends behind in high school, and unprepared for the culture shock I was about to receive. So there I was,
