My name is Chloe Campbell, and I am a graduate student in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Xavier University. Although I have come to love my environment, my school, and my community here in Cincinnati, that wasn’t always the case.
I am originally from a small town in southeastern Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia. At eighteen, I moved ten hours away to Clemson, South Carolina, to earn my Bachelor’s in Psychology. After graduation, I decided to pursue my graduate degree at Xavier. So I can say, with confidence, that I am no stranger to big changes and life transitions. And although I had made a big move to a new area before, my transition from college to post-grad and graduate student life in a city I wasn’t familiar with was no small feat.
I have always been a generally adaptable person, someone who feels excited at the idea of change, growth, and a new challenge or goal to work toward. The combination of graduating college, moving into a new phase of life, and being in a whole new environment was a true test for my mental health. It came with real hardship, real challenges, and real uncertainty. Still, I can say today that it is a decision I don’t regret, and I honestly have never felt more fulfilled in my life than I do now.
When I first moved to Cincinnati to begin assimilating to the city and preparing for my graduate program to start, I knew I was going to have to give myself time to feel comfortable and excited in an area where I had no family and had made no friends yet. I started a nannying job, which was fulfilling and a great position for me, but did not leave many opportunities to meet people my age. So I made it a priority for myself to attend community events, reach out to new people, and try to join groups. This was scary and uncomfortable, but I was determined to find my people.
If I’m being completely transparent, it was the first time in my life I had truly understood feelings of depression, doubt, and even a bit of hopelessness. I had left all my friends from college behind and was still far from my family. I knew I wanted a new experience during graduate school, but I wasn’t prepared for the mental toll it would take to transition from my life in college to this new chapter.
College, as it probably does for a lot of people, brought me a life of predictability, of clear boundaries and goals set for everyone at that age. You are surrounded by peers who are all reaching the same goal, doing the same things, and living the same lifestyle as you. Postgrad can often be overwhelming, because there is no longer a baseline or standard for what everyone should be doing at the age of twenty two, or what path you should be going down. Everyone is in a different place, in a different career, and in a different phase of life.
During this period, I really felt the weight of this uncertainty and unfamiliarity on my shoulders. I would ask myself, “Is this what I am supposed to be doing?” “Is this going to get better?” “Am I making a mistake?” But the reality of it was that I had made a decision, I had taken a risk, and I wasn’t going to give up. Even when I was homesick, upset, or feeling down, I picked myself back up, went to events, met up with new people, and found new things to fuel my mental health.
I became more familiar with what I needed to do to take care of myself and my mental health. I prioritized walking, moving my body, reaching out into my community, finding a therapist, and discovering new hobbies to fill my time. I started walking more, getting to know my new city, and exploring on my own, something I had never truly had to do or experience before. I gained a lot of time alone, time to get to know myself and become comfortable figuring out who I was, what I wanted to do with my life, and who I wanted to be. It was uncomfortable, it was hard, but so incredibly rewarding.
School started two months later, and although it was stressful and daunting, I made it a point to reach out, introduce myself, and make plans with anyone I met and felt a connection with. Slowly, I grew to have a friend group from my graduate program, as well as other friends I had met outside of school. I really started to feel happy with where I was and who I was spending my time with.
The friends I have met here in Cincinnati are some of the most impactful people in my life. They have worked alongside me through our challenging coursework. We’ve celebrated each other on our greatest days. We’ve picked each other up on our hardest days. Our group has shown me a whole new definition of friendship. The community I so devoutly strived to create for myself finally came into fruition, and it was the most fulfilling and rewarding feeling to look back on everything I went through and know I had achieved what I once thought I couldn’t.
This experience showed me the true importance of finding what truly brings you joy, what you find important to prioritize, and how to take care of your mental health. Everyone has different needs when it comes to attaining and sustaining their mental health, and everyone processes hard times differently. This era of my life taught me how to take care of myself, how to trust myself to make hard choices and build a life for myself, and most of all, the pivotal impact and importance of prioritizing community and growing a supportive, loving group of people around you whom you can trust and lean on.
If you’re in the middle of your own transition right now, uncertain, unmoored, wondering if it will ever feel steady again, I want you to know that it can, and it will. Give yourself the same grace and patience you’d offer a friend, and trust that the discomfort of building a new life is often the very thing that leads you home to yourself.