Paige - Edit 1-Up to 4K
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I'm Paige,
I'm in second year,
and I'm from Ancaster.
I came into University
already with
mental health struggles,
so just coming
into a new place
and not knowing anyone.
And I did an extra
semester of high school,
so kind of already
feeling left behind or lonely.
That was something
I had to overcome.
When I decided that I
needed to wait another year,
that was definitely
the right decision.
I was not ready
to go to university.
So then I was feeling really
energized to come to school.
I was feeling really ready,
but it's hard.
It's a new place.
You're by yourself
for the first time.
You're expecting everything
to finally fit into place,
and everything is
going to be totally fine.
I was coming in,
and I was excited
to learn about something
that I cared about
and that I wanted to learn.
When I was
looking for schools,
I didn't really
know what I was doing,
so the first year,
being general,
was really important.
But by the time I was
actually going to school,
it was like, okay,
I know what I want to do.
So being in those
general sciences
it was like really hard.
It's hard to not do
great at something,
especially when I thought
I'm good at school.
So then not performing
as well as I did in high school,
it was hard.
I knew I needed some sort
of support system in place.
The big reason I came to Guelph
was because I knew they
have so many resources
and supports available
to the students.
Within the first
few weeks probably,
I got an appointment
with Health Services
to see a doctor who I could
get my meds all regulated with,
and she kind of pointed
me in different directions
for different resources
and I got set up with
someone from Counseling Services
and a lot of things
run by the students,
like the Student
Support Network,
which I actually ended up
joining as a peer mentor.
But just really
great programs
that are there,
often run by the students,
but for the students
who are struggling
to relate to students.
It's nice to talk to people
who are like,
"Yeah, I totally get it."