My College Transition

A young woman wearing with light brown hair wearing a floral shirt and standing in front of a white wall

Emery Bergmann, B.F.A. 2021
Hometown
Montclair, New York
Class
ART 2701 Introduction to Digital Media
Instructor
Visiting Lecturer Anna Huff

The project was to depict a "transformation." Bergmann created a video about her college transition and its impact on her throughout her first few months at Cornell. She highlights how she entered college with really high expectations, and how social media played into her frustration. The video was created over a two week period, using Adobe Premiere and stop-motion video made from construction paper.

View video transcript

So I'm a brand-spanking-new freshman in college and like I guess I just assumed that once I was at school that like that was gonna be it I was got a million friends I was gonna just party all the time and it was just gonna be lit but it's just not really like that like I haven't really found anyone I'm super close with and like I spend a lot of time in my dorm room and all those people I talk to you like they always say the same thing you're like I swear to god you're gonna find your people but like where are they like what does that mean and I feel like everyone else kind of have to found their squad like people walk around a big posses and I definitely don't have that I feel more like a planet in the solar system and like I know people and I say hi to them when I pass by them but you know sometimes that's kind of it also like I have friends you went to other schools and they just seem like they're literally having like the most fun ever I know social media is fake and stuff and that like people are picking and choosing like the coolest parts of their life to show you but like I don't know it gets to you and they're all like partying all the time but I don't really do that I guess um it's just weird because you know you wonder if that's what you should be doing like the phone sucks to the phone in general makes it so hard now this constant reminder of like all my friends back home and how close we were and all the fun stuff we did together so I guess that distance can just like really get to you and to be honest making new friends is so hard like I'm social but I feel like I really have to force myself because I don't know people don't go up to you to talk to you and I feel like I'm always going out of my way to just like talk to people and I don't know I feel like I'm intruding that like I'm getting the wave people and their friends I take a lot of space and conversation so I just feel like just like friendship and hungry gremlin and I don't know I kind of give up and I thought joining clubs would help but you know just because people have similar interests doesn't really mean that they're get along so I don't know that didn't really worked as well as I had hoped I did receive this letter from my mom who kind of knows how I'm feeling about this hole called to transition but she basically said I have nothing to fear that everyone goes through this she almost wanted to transfer schools when she first went to college because she couldn't really find her place she also put in an op-ed from the New York Times where this guy interviewed a bunch of college students and they all talked about how the media portrayed college is like the best time their young adult life but they actually had a hard time adjusting you know everyone talked about how easy it was but it's not really that easy and you know you can be surrounded by people that still feel alone so that made me more comfortable knowing like I'm not alone we're all kind of going through this experience together and but basically I guess it's just you know things take time gotta be patient and one day my twin can grow and I'll probably five at the big ass posse and we'll go like burn in pillage or whatever but to be honest oh I'm probably gonna complain about it that happens you.
Screenshot from the video My College Transition (2017). video still / Emery Bergmann
Screenshot from the video My College Transition (2017). video still / Emery Bergmann
Screenshot from the video My College Transition (2017). video still / Emery Bergmann

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My College Transition

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