{"id":38577,"date":"2019-07-22T07:38:08","date_gmt":"2019-07-22T11:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=38577"},"modified":"2019-07-19T11:47:49","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T15:47:49","slug":"my-experience-moving-to-a-city-where-i-knew-no-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/07\/22\/my-experience-moving-to-a-city-where-i-knew-no-one\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience Moving To a City Where I Knew No One"},"content":{"rendered":"Almost two years ago, I jumped on a plane from Vancouver to Toronto. I didn\u2019t know a single person who was going to the University of Toronto, which was super scary. But, after a couple weeks in residence, I realized that moving to a city where I knew no one was actually a great opportunity.\r\n\r\n<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_2947.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-38585\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_2947-e1563478814173-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"A picture of mountains from a plane window. \" width=\"350\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_2947-e1563478814173-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_2947-e1563478814173-768x1024.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/a><\/span>\r\n\r\n<strong>\u00a01) I could be whoever I wanted to be.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn my high school, everyone knew who everyone was, and if I had gone to university in Vancouver, those same people would have been there. One of the best things about moving to Toronto alone was that I could be whoever I wanted to be. All those embarrassing high school moments and weird haircuts were long forgotten, and I could start fresh. Once I realized this, moving became an opportunity to start fresh with people who knew nothing about me.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_38582\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38582\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/giphy-1-1.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38582 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/giphy-1-1.gif\" alt=\"A man saying &quot;There's gonna be a few changes around here.&quot; \" width=\"500\" height=\"280\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38582\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Creds: giphy.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<strong>2) Not having friends forced me to make friends.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nDuring frosh week, I didn\u2019t have any preexisting friends to hang out with, like lots of other people on my residence floor did. But, not having any high school friends was also really helpful, because it forced me to step out of my comfort zone. As a person with anxiety, making friends can be really hard, and if I already have friends, I\u2019ll often just stick to them. But, this was a circumstance where I had no choice but to talk to new people.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\nEven though it was scary at first, I ended up meeting some of my closest friends on the second day of frosh week, which immediately made things a lot better. Also, because I didn\u2019t have any high school friends to hang out with, I could become friends with anyone I wanted. My university friends are a lot different than my high school friends, but had I been with people from high school, I probably wouldn\u2019t have pushed myself to connect with completely different types of people.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_38583\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38583\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_5042.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38583\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_5042-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"A picture of Old Vic at Victoria College\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_5042-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_5042-768x433.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_5042-1024x577.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_5042.jpg 1136w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38583\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My first time visiting Victoria College!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n<strong>3) Being from a different city allows you to connect deeply with people.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong>\r\n\r\nAnother thing I noticed when moving was that being from a different city allowed me to connect easily with people. Even though it felt like lots of students were from Ontario, I soon discovered that there were a lot of students in the same boat as me. I instantly became friends with a girl from Victoria, BC, because we came from the same province and bonded over how much we missed the rain (typical BC!). I also bonded with some people from America who were also feeling homesick. So, coming from far away actually gave me the opportunity to better connect with people.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_38584\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-38584\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_3921.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-38584\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_3921-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"A picture of a harbour in Vancouver, BC. \" width=\"450\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_3921-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_3921-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/07\/IMG_3921-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-38584\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It's easy to bond over missing BC!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nBecause of all this, I\u2019ve learned that even though moving to a new city seems pretty scary, it's allowed me to grow as a person and make totally new friends, which completely changed my world around me. So wherever you're moving from, get ready for an adventure!","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nAlmost two years ago, I jumped on a plane from Vancouver to Toronto. I didn\u2019t know a single person who was going to the University of Toronto, which was super scary. But, after a couple weeks in residence, I realized&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/07\/22\/my-experience-moving-to-a-city-where-i-knew-no-one\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;My Experience Moving To a City Where I Knew No One&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/07\/22\/my-experience-moving-to-a-city-where-i-knew-no-one\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;My Experience Moving To a City Where I Knew No One&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":374,"featured_media":38578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7204,1,58,66,82,67],"tags":[12750,6525,12658,27571,27570,27572,25506],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38577"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/374"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38577"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38589,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38577\/revisions\/38589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}