There are many aspects of returning to NYU Abu Dhabi that upperclassmen know all too well: the joyful reunions after months — possibly years — of separation, the endless replies to questions about summers, internships and previous semesters, the staggering back from the bookstore with a fresh set of textbooks and fresh optimism for the coming months. Underlying these familiar experiences for me, though, is the small ripple of a foreign feeling.

Tonight I will be co-facilitating a workshop on Adjusting to NYUAD for freshmen, offering my experience and advice on how to acclimatise to college life. To them, we upperclassmen must seem like we are intimately acquainted with the context in which we find ourselves, and in many ways we are. Yet I find myself going through a period of adjustment too — one that can be easily overlooked in the bustle of a busy new year.

While the buildings fundamentally remain the same — the appearance of brightly coloured walls aside — its inhabitants change. As last year’s seniors progress into the real world and this year’s freshmen burst in with awe-inspiring enthusiasm, those in the middle must accept that this fall is not like the spring before it nor like the fall before that. It sounds trivial to write all of this down — of course, the student body keeps changing, that is the nature of any university — but I cannot be the only one struggling to adjust. Just last week I found myself eating at a table that we referred to as an island of seniors because of the relief we found in familiar faces among a sea of strangers. Moving around the campus is akin to biting into one of my favourite Camel Cookies and finding a different filling: it is still sweet, but not what I was expecting.

Should I have anticipated this feeling of having to readjust? Yes, perhaps. As a senior it’s not my first time coming back, but for some reason the feelings are the strongest they’ve been since I came to NYUAD. The ghosts of friends gone by linger around the spaces that remind me of my memories with them. While I relish my final year as a chance to make new memories and new friends, I find myself going through a period of sadness as I remember that certain people are no longer here.

I know I’m not the only one readjusting, nor is mine the only problem. I spoke to a friend today who told me about the trouble she has with moving between such vastly different contexts. At home, friends and family hold views that are utterly out of place here, and in the first few days, she struggles to fit back into college. The sudden change in pace, too, takes some getting used to. After a peaceful summer in the countryside, the oversubscribed life of NYUAD comes as something of a shock.

Thankfully the sensation never lasts long. As with each year before this, I will soon be swept up by this slightly altered life at NYUAD. Already, new faces are becoming old, and my choice of who to sit with at dinner is beginning to grow rapidly. But as I offer advice to freshmen struggling to settle in, I will take the time to tell them that we too go through an adjustment period. It is subtler and perhaps quicker, but it is there nonetheless, and no one should be ashamed of saying so. Seniors might seem like they know everything, but freshmen aren’t the only ones who can feel lost.