By Khushy Vashisht
On a hot summer day, the energy inside a North York chapel was buzzing and bittersweet. 17-year-old Aliza Ali looked around at the classmates she had known for years, adorned in white caps and gowns, when it suddenly started to sink in: her high school days were officially behind her.
Now, Ali is looking ahead to her first year in mechanical engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) with both nerves and excitement.
According to peer-reviewed journal Applied Developmental Science, young adults experience crucial identity-based changes more than other age groups—including the transition from secondary to post-secondary education, which can alter one’s socializing system.
“There’s a lot of excitement and curiousity”
Ryan Persram, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at TMU, said pursuing post-secondary education can be one of the first major decisions of young adulthood.
“There’s a lot of excitement and curiosity,” said Persram. “As a 17- or 18-year-old, [you] are making a decision on what school you want to attend, what you’re going to [study] or moving away from home.”
Ali decided to study at TMU following a high school university fair. She liked the co-op opportunities the school offered but the diverse student body was a deciding factor.
“I really love my culture and sometimes it’s very upsetting when there’s people around you that aren’t from that [culture], you feel you don’t fit in as much,” she explained. “It’s honestly great to have representation on campus because you never feel alone.”
Mia Greenidge, a first-year RTA media production student, will attend TMU following a gap year she took after graduating high school. She said the change in routine makes her “a bit nervous to readjust.”
An even greater change in her routine will be location altogether as she will be moving to Toronto from California.
“Now is a good time to develop these [habits]”
“It’s a completely new environment and even though I’ve visited my family in Toronto growing up, it’s going to be different to actually live there and recreate everything I’ve already built here in terms of my friendships,” she said. “It’s stressful and exciting at the same time.”
Persram said there’s anxiety within this transitional period of making new friends and being in a new school environment but it ultimately depends on pushing out of personal comfort zones at one’s pace.
Through social media accounts for student groups and pages made for the TMU class of 2028, Ali has already started to mingle with her peers.
“I’m a very extroverted person so making friends is part of my job description,” she joked. “It’s exciting to know that some of these people you’re going to be spending the rest of your lives with.”
However, not everyone who enters university is as eager to come out of their shell.
Maya Khan, a first-year urban and regional planning student, is the only one out of her close friends to go to TMU and describes herself as an introvert.
“I would rather have someone come up and talk to me but I want to work on talking to other people and push myself out of my comfort zone,” said Khan. “Now is a good time to develop these [habits].”
“I’m the first generation of women in my family to go to university. I’m leading a legacy”
The next four years for many incoming students will be filled with plenty of mental growth in the form of resilience and autonomy, according to Persram.
“You’re going to deal with challenges…I think how you deal with and how you grow from those opportunities, those challenges, those hurdles will get better over time,” said Persram. “Within four years, you’re [going to] become more familiar with what you’re capable of, what you realize you can do down the road and truly what you can be.”
To help prepare for this new journey, Greenidge is focused on improving her sleeping habits. This seemingly small step is one of the hardest things for her to overcome. She hopes to not let the next four years fly by and instead enjoy new experiences day by day.
While Khan is apprehensive about this “big change,” she still looks forward to the next chapter of her life, calling university “a stepping stone to adulthood.”
Persram gives first-year students three main pieces of advice: to applaud themselves for making it to this point, recognize and reach out when they need help with both academics and mental health and utilize your existing social network.
Ali is excited for much of university life but what drives her positive outlook is the history she’s making in her own family.
“I’m the first generation of women in my family to go to university. I’m leading a legacy,” she said. “It’s quite a beautiful thing that encourages and inspires me to see university in a positive light.”
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