They say life begins at the end of your comfort zone.
It’s easy to stick to things you know and an environment with which you are familiar. Although it may be risky to step out of it, taking that risk can change the way you look at life, at people and even yourself.
I lived in Florida my whole life until I came to college to play football in Bangor. In my city, Boynton Beach, you probably aren’t known if you don’t play sports or if you’re not a dope boy. The people are blunt. If you are unfamiliar, they’re not very friendly. The environment is hostile, and you have to carry yourself in an appropriate manner in order to stay safe from little acts of bullying and bigger dangers, such as getting shot.
Never having been to Maine before enrolling at Husson University, I knew the state would be populated almost entirely by white people. When I first got up here, it was obvious that I stuck out. I saw people laughing, and I saw others go completely silent when they saw me as if they were scared of me. I’ve had people completely turn around when they saw me coming. I have even had people tell me that they had never before seen a black person. That was shocking.
My first year in Maine wasn’t too bad. I usually hung out with people on the football team, and I was pretty comfortable with them. Whenever I was around people I didn’t know, I was quiet and really observant.
Where I’m from, we don’t reach out to people much. People I met in Maine told me that I looked angry, that I made people uncomfortable. It never really bothered me because I was just sticking to what I knew.
It was also really difficult communicating with people here. I’ve been asked to repeat myself multiple times or slow down. I’ve even been told to “talk white.” People always told me I had that heavy Southern accent. I even had trouble with the girls, as if I didn’t even know how to speak to them.
The culture of Maine is so simple that it is complicated. Back home being too friendly makes people question your motives. It makes people distance themselves from you. In Maine, people are friendly just because. The more friendly you are, the more people like to be associated with you.
I also noticed that people in Maine are self-conscious about almost everything — how people talk, how they dress, how they act. It’s almost as if everybody is supposed to be the same. I think the reason is the lack of diversity. Diversity not only provides different perspectives, it also brings new ideas.
During my time here, I have managed to trick people into thinking I was completely adapted to the culture, but internally there was a lot of conflict. I wasn’t happy at all in my first year, but I pretended to be.
I was excited to go back home for the summer after my first year. I saw my friends and family and enjoyed life the way I knew how to. But after some time went by, I noticed I was doing the same things with the same people every day. Usually, I’m content with that but for some reason it just didn’t feel right. I wasn’t really making any progress in my life, but I needed my life to move forward. The things that used to be fun to me — drinking, smoking, partying — weren’t so fun anymore.
Maine had inspired me to become a better version of myself.
Florida and Boynton Beach will always be my home, but I had the chance to step out of my old reality and look at it from the outside. It made me realize what I truly wanted and what I didn’t want. I wanted to be in a position where I could inspire myself and others to be better. I soon started distancing myself from toxic friends and bad habits. I started spending more time at home. I started really evaluating my life. And the more I evaluated myself the more I noticed being in Maine exposed a side of me that I wanted to explore. A lot happened to me that summer, and it opened my eyes.
That fall, I was back in Maine ready for the school year. I was more social and outgoing that year. Instead of people telling me that I made them feel uncomfortable I had people tell me that they loved hanging out with me. I actually went through that year without football due to grades, and I was able to focus more on school and socializing since I had a lot more free time. As the year ended I decided to stay in Maine for the summer for classes and to train, and I met a lot more people and was actually looking forward to the new school year.
This year, I played football again, and I have a lot more friends than I did my first year. I’m communicating with everybody better, and I even learned how to talk to the girls.
I’m glad I stepped out of my comfort zone and chose to embrace this new chapter in my life instead of running away from it. Life is all about learning. This doesn’t mean that you abandon your old experiences. But I learned that you should always embrace new experiences because they can shape you to become a better person.
Robenson Saintard is a third-year student at Husson University majoring in psychology. He plays slot receiver and kick returner for Husson’s football team.