Stepping into a new life...

It's coming up to end of my first year of being at Sixth Form. I have been looking back to when I first started and I have thought about how much I have achieved since September. I came to a college that was the nearest to me but also one of the best in my area. However, none of my high school friends live near me, meaning that they wouldn't even think about coming to my Sixth Form as its too far for them to commute. 

This was a big struggle for me because at this stage, I was very shy around new people and I had to battle with the thoughts of being alone everyday. It got to the point where just a week before starting I wanted to change Sixth Form and go to one that I knew my friends were going to. However, I didn't do this and I stuck to the Sixth Form I am currently at. This was probably one of the best choices I have ever made! 

I found a few people on twitter who were going to my college and I followed them in hope I would then gain a few friends, one person actually started talking to me and she befriended me(Alex). This really helped me because I got to speak to someone before I actually met them. She introduced me to a lot of her friends and I felt really welcome. I then ended up being in her tutorial and art which helped me a lot because I got to stick with her. Tutorial was also really good for me because I met another girl who is also my best friend(Asha) we had the same frees so I stayed with her a lot more and this is when i got introduced to more people. She had friends from school coming to our Sixth Form, so then we formed a group. Now there is about 25/30 of us and its pretty fab.

The transition from high school to Sixth Form wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be and I'm glad I moved onto to a new place which was out of my comfort zone because my confidence has grown and I'm not as scared to meet new people anymore. My new friends are also really great and they've welcomed me so much and they've always been there for me since starting, despite us only knowing each other for 7 months. 

So if you're scared about going into further education / new job or anything to do with meeting new people, my best advice would be not to worry and always smile because you will look more approachable.