The Transfer Story

As the year comes to a close, as I say my goodbyes and head to the airport to board my flight headed back to the West Coast, I cannot help but be amazed at the incredible journey I have been on over the past two years. I’d love to reiterate something that I seem to have said throughout my blog posts over the past semester: coming to William & Mary has been one of the best decisions of my life. William & Mary was a place to grow, a place to learn, a place to thrive. William & Mary took the person I was, and improved me ten-fold. Whether it be the clubs I have joined, Greek life community I have found, challenging classes I have taken, or life-long friends I have made, William & Mary has contributed to my life in some of the most meaningful and lasting ways possible. Since coming to William & Mary I have realized that it is more than okay to be anything you want to be, completely and unapologetically.

As I drove away from campus, I turned to my roommate (also a transfer student) and expressed some of the heartache I was feeling, as it was starting to hit me that I only got to have 3 years at William & Mary, that I felt like I had been somewhat robbed of that magical freshman year that many students rave about. She assuaged my strife with a simple response; she said, “Yeah, but transfer students get to have a different story; everyone has their own journey.” She was absolutely right. Yes, transferring means leaving your past school behind and pursuing something new, but it also means you have experiences that no one else has, it means you had the courage and gusto to apply to college not once, but twice because you were committed to seeking a place that was truly the right place for you. William & Mary has taught me a lot of wonderful things in the past two years, but the most important is reflected in a quote by Milton Berle: “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” I built a door that took me to William & Mary, and that has, in turn, opened up endless doors that have brought me to where I am today.

– Katianna Tron