hi runaan! idk if this is the wrong place to ask, but i wanted some encouragement for school, and you seem helpful :') im starting my final year of high school next year, but im moving school away from my friends, and im nervous :( is there any advice or encouragement i could ask for?
Traveling far from all you know can be stressful in many ways, little shadow. The blending-in that I do in strange new places is likely different than what you hope to achieve, but I will do my best.
Take something of home with you. Find a way to send or show new things to your friends from afar. Look for things that are the same, in your new home. Perhaps it will be a coffee shop, or a library nook, or a local cat.
You don't need to open your heart wide to new people if you're not ready. You can wait, watch them, find those who feel safest and most fun. If you're uncomfortable in new groups, you can be someone else for a while, maybe someone braver, until you're ready to be yourself. I shouldn't recommend myself, though - my go-to solution for new groups is "do not be in new groups," or sometimes "use Ethari as an elven shield against small talk." But that probably won't help you at school. However, this means you are already braver than me, and I salute you.
The thing about new experiences is, they will change you. It is a given. Knowing this ahead of time can help you affix a lens to it before it happens, and you can see those changes in whatever light and angle you wish.
You will be changed. You will grow and learn new things. That happens to everyone, whether we enjoy the transformation or not (I do not recommend coin transformations though, fyi). What you do with the knowledge of your growth is what will determine the sort of person you grow into over time.
Think on this, then: who do you want to be, when this final year of school is over, and how can you navigate this new area to achieve that goal?
Good luck to you.
