Hello Community,
I am so happy to have found this site. I really need some advice. I am a first-year student at an expensive private college 300 or so miles from home. My parents threatened me to make a certain choice in schools (I wanted to go somewhere closer to home). Now I am at the preferred school and have been unhappy ever since. I have been grappling with some serious issues in my life including a divorce with my parents, a nasty step-mother, a brother with awful behavioral problems that affect the family, etc. I miss my friends and my boyfriend, who has come a few times to visit and support me but it's not the same.
I am doing ok academically, but I hate the environment. The people here are snobbish and then get wasted on weekends, which I don't. It's a tiny school, and I feel overwhelmingly isolated. I have joined some groups but it hasn't helped much. I don't fit in at all, even though I've always been pretty social...I'm struggling badly here. Every minute is slowly wasting away for me. I'm also have a lot of trouble concentrating on my work. I was always a good student, but now I find myself struggling like never before. I have counseling here and was diagnosed with short term depression that'll last a few years. I'd never guess that'd be me! I feel like I worked all my life for college (I had credentials, blah blah honors), and it's not what I needed now that I'm here.
I just want to leave and go to community college so I can calm down, then transfer. Or just transfer now to another school. I knew being this far from home would be an issue, and I miss just regular nice people (I'm sick of snobbishness). I know it would make all the difference to not feel isolated. What should I do?