A blog post by Marital and Family Therapy student ambassador Dorna Sepehri. 

Hi friends! My name is Dorna Sepehri and my pronouns are she/her/hers. I am a first-generation grad student in the Marital and Family Therapy Program. In August of 2019, I made the biggest decision of my life: to move to a new state all by myself! I’d recently been admitted to the program of my dreams and now I had to pack up my bags and start a new chapter. 

I was born in Iran and moved to Arizona with my family over 17 years ago. I grew up most of my life in Phoenix, Arizona, and have always been very close with my family. So, moving to a new state by myself without any family or friends here was quite challenging for me. A part of me was grieving the familiar state I felt so grounded in. While another part of me was excited to finally move to my favorite city to pursue my dream career. However, I slowly adjusted and started to make this place my new home.

Many special and important aspects have made my transition to this beautiful state so meaningful:

• I cannot say enough about the amazing individuals in my cohort. I truly feel blessed to have met them and get to call them my friends. I’ve been able to find community at USD and that has made this move so worth it.
• Reaching out and building relationships with my faculty at USD has been so valuable! They are here to support us in any way possible and are only an email away. Many of them have similar experiences or have many other students who are in the same boat. Scheduling meetings with my advisor or my professors to just talk about my transition made this new, foreign burden a little bit easier to carry. 
• Thankfully, I already knew a couple of people here in SD and was able to find roommates before moving here. They were so welcoming from the beginning and have been really fun to be around during this Pandemic. I can truly say, building friendships is essential when moving to a new place.
• I’ve made a list of places I’ve been wanting to explore in San Diego (all of the beaches, of course!!) including different restaurants to try. I’ve slowly been exploring them one-by-one. Through this, I’ve also found some of my favorite spots to go to when I need a moment to ground myself. My favorite beach right now is Windansea! 

If San Diego is a new place for you, I hope that you find ways to craft it into a home. 

–Dorna Sepehri