# Anyone else have orientation for college?



## iwanttobenormal (Aug 2, 2011)

Mine is in a week, and I'm dreading it. Apparently its not social anxiety friendly. We're going to have to socialize with eachother and meet new people and try to make "friends". I think its going to be pure hell. I haven't had such a dreaded moment since graduation, thank god for these two months of leisure and calm. I really want to reinvent myself and be the nice outgoing person that I know I can be, but I just... I don't know if I can do it. I don't want to start of shy and for people to get the impression that I'm no friendly. Ah, such is the hassle of living with this...disease. Anyone else already have orientation, or currently dreading it? Any tips, stories, experiences?


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## ScienceGuy (Mar 9, 2012)

It's been a few years, but I remember being really scared not just of orientation, but of going to college and being in a more constant social environment. 

Orientation isn't designed for people with social anxiety, but that's fine. You can do as much as you want to. You can push yourself to meet people, or you can slowly get used to college. This is college, you can do whatever you want to. If you're not comfortable going to an event, then don't go! I spent quite a bit of time in my room during orientation. I also made myself go to some events, because I really wanted to meet people despite how scared I was. 

In my opinion, college is a great opportunity to work on losing a bit of social anxiety at whatever pace is right for you. You have to push yourself, but you don't have to do anything you can't bring yourself to do. Be excited for the future, and let that excitement shine through the fear, no matter how strong it is.


I remember thinking in high school that I was going to reinvent myself the moment I went to college. My advise there is drop that thought from your mind. It won't happen, it can't happen. Getting over social anxiety is a slow progress. But college is one of the best places to make that progress happen.


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## sparkplug74 (Feb 9, 2012)

Our college has an orientation every year. I never attended. If I did anxiety would probably kill me, literally.


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## odnx (May 29, 2011)

My college's orientation was actually online.. Has anyone ever heard of that?

I thought that was pretty cool, and good for me and my SA.

Good luck everyone with your orientations!


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## silentk (Apr 22, 2012)

Mine is on Thursday! I'm not too nervous, because it's a little school and I won't be living on campus. But still, it's a new thing and I have no idea how my brain will want to deal with it, haha.

Good luck with yours!

-K


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## blue the puppy (Jul 23, 2011)

i spent my college orientation by myself, literally the only person who ate meals alone. i skipped out on most of the activities (even the supposedly 'mandatory' ones). i guess this is probably not very helpful to you, but that was my experience.


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## Cabaje (Jun 29, 2012)

My college orientation is going to be soon. And I am soo scared. Another thing is that I suck at sports and do not really watch any either and I am a dude so it will be hard to socialize. When someone asks me about it i will probably draw a blank and they'll think i am weird. Life sucks if you are a weirdo AND on top of it you have SA which is influenced to some extent by the weirdness and the SA itself causes some more weirdness. That's me self hatin'.


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## fire mage64 (Jun 20, 2011)

It was good overall - I got to choose a lot of the events I went to and my roomate for the day was very nice (the volunteer type). Unfortunately I had to break ties with one group because they would constantly gossip about people they did and didn't know. Even about strangers around them. Thinking about it now makes me sick.


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## plsgr (Jul 19, 2012)

My orientation was 4 years ago. It wasn't so bad, because there were a lot, A LOT of shy/lonely people at orientation. No one knew me, no one knew I had SA, so I took this opportunity to challenge myself and try to be more social. I would go up to some people and introduce myself, and ask them where they are from. I met someone from out of state, so we basically stuck together during orientation. 

We were assigned a person to share a dorm for the night (it was a different girl), and at night my roommate left to hang out in one of her high school friend's dorm! I was alone and bored out of my mind!


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