That brings me to NEW STARTS, today marks your first day in university. You should have moved in before reading this, and I think this is one of the first times I'm not exactly sure how you feel - I can only really guess excitement, fear of the unknown, yearning to not be a disappointment… Okay now I'm just describing how I feel but well we are pretty much the same person. In fact, it's uncanny how we experience similar things in the same time, but hey I'm not complaining! However, I can say with my hand on my heart that you have made the right decision. This will be one of your life's best journeys, you'll navigate through independence, adulthood and freedom in your next years. You will have to occasionally go back to life a day before you moved in the holidays when you come back to Birmingham, but everything will feel different. Breathe in, nothing will be the same anymore. Going back to your room will feel different, food won't taste the same. As scary as that sounds, university life will become your new normal, it'll condition you for your later life ;). Honestly, you're the most capable person I know of handling new situations, I just know you'll be thriving as time goes on and that I am extremely lucky to witness you becoming your best self.
As I am writing this, I can feel excitement build up. All the new tea we will have, new crushes, night face-time calls, new habits and just us living alone but together. In Sha' Allah we build up new and forever-lasting memories with good-hearted people that we can share with our children. Now I have to mention, you're about to have your first night. CHANNEL YOUR NEW IDENTITY THROUGH! Whether that's new interests, more confidence, mystery...Whatever it is, make sure you are on your A game when it comes to consistency with your new identity with new people. This will affect their first impressions on you, and maybe even forever-lasting impressions. Apparently, university isn't that different from school, you just have to live in the campus too. So the people you meet may or may not be like secondary school. Be sure of the people you wish to have company with before building that relationship, usually people give away hints of how they'll treat you. Pay close attention to the details, even if it's just how they interacted with a professor. Keep your company ambitious - no 'I am defo skipping first lecture or blah' around. Even though we may have inner dialogues that go along those lines, we are going to be successful women and we need to build up good habits now. We cannot risk bad influence!