I will be entering college this September, and as much as I like anime and manga, I don't want to be an otaku anymore. It is not like I don't enjoy them--of course I do, but I don't want to be known as a nerd anymore, and being a freshman in college, starting anew, will give me the opportunity.

It will be too painful if I just throw away/give away my collection at once, so I want to do it slowly. I don't know how I am going to manage doing that though... it seems like such a waste!

Anyway, I hope you guys can shed some light and opinion into how I can do it in a less painful manner. There is only a month more before I head to college, so I should start doing it now!

give it to your ota-friends.

Sell them!
I liked to read some manga but when I found that I could buy a plane ticket and 4 days abroad by selling one serie (got back 300% that I spent on it) I did at once. And so I did with some others.
You can have money, and you can be sure someone else will enjoy and appreciate them.

well, dude, it's not like you're gonna be able to transport all your otaku crap with you to college right? People won't be able to know for the first three months or so, and then you'll discover the local otaku-joint and you'll quickly realize that using college as an excuse to remodel your personality yourself was a silly idea. Or not.

It's not easy removing something completely from your lifestyle. If you make too rapid of a change, you'll just end up going back to it at some stage.

Your best solution is to find yourself something else to do with your time*. If you get more interested in the said activity, your time spare to be a nerd is reduced.

*This can be anything from stealing cars through to collecting stamps.