There are many challenges that come with the transition from high school to college, especially if the transition involves moving to a new state by yourself. One student, Emery Bergmann, a Cornell University freshman, documented her struggle with loneliness at college in a short film for a class — and, with a little help from the TODAY Show, people around the world are connecting with her story and talking about that unique, isolating feeling.
In the film, Bergmann talks about how she wasn’t making a lot of friends or felt close to anyone when she was seeing her peers walk around in big groups, going out and having the fun that she expected she was going to have. In an interview with her school paper, The Cornell Sun, she said she felt “frustrated, lonely and isolated from the large amoebas of students.”
“I knew that there were other people in my position, but I felt like I wasn’t seeing it. There’s no way I’m the only person on this campus that’s not making friends, but from what I saw, it felt like it was only me.” She’s 100% right that she’s not the only one, there are countless articles on freshman feeling lonely and like they’re not making friends," Bergmann said. "This is so common, that the parenting section of the TODAY Show website picked up the video to share with their audience."
A really important point that Emery makes in the video is that social media intensified her feelings of loneliness. In the film, she said “I know social media is fake and stuff and people are picking and choosing the coolest parts of their life to show you but I don’t know, it gets to you.”
This is unsurprisingly a huge issue for a lot of students. Social media can be really damaging if you start to compare your life to your friends lives because after all, it is “fake.”
Later into the semester, Emery’s mother sent her a letter describing how she had a hard time adjusting in college too. After receiving the letter, Emery said “I realized how unfair I was being to myself and other, expecting everything to work out perfectly in the first two months.” She adds, “People are afraid to confront the fact that it’s not as easy to make friends. It’s not going to come as quickly as everyone thinks it will.