Note: There is no such thing as the Camarilla, vampires, Hunters, werewolves, so on and so forth, except in the imaginations the people who play or design the games. I'm one of the ones who plays, but I do not own any of the above concepts, nor do I make any profit off using them.
You know, most people who know about vampires (barring Hunters, werewolves, and other vampires) see becoming a vampire as something simple. You're an ordinary guy or girl, you function fairly well in society. One evening, this odd-looking guy (or girl) pushes you into an alleyway, bites your neck, drinks some blood, then feeds you some of their blood. You fall asleep, wake up, and poof! you're a vampire and you can do all this cool shit and the only rules are "don't go out in daytime" and "be sneaky." Right?
Wrong as fuck. First of all, vampire candidates are almost never ordinary. We don't want ordinary people. We want people who are a cut above the average in some way that our clan likes. Brujah like smart brawlers, Ventrue like amazing business skills and leadership ability, Malkavians like other crazy people, etcetera, etcetera. Secondly, who the hell assumes you're doing well in society at your Embrace? Even if you aren't picked for a Malkavian, we don't want the popular sort either. We like the cold, the ruthless, the ones the minimum number will miss if they "die" suddenly or are permanently "called away on business." God knows I wasn't in the best of shape when I was Embraced. I was totally isolated, nocturnal, rich but not caring, halfway to being an alcoholic, and half-suicidal but too scared to do anything about it. Why do you think I welcomed the Embrace so much? I found out what Death's like, and while it wasn't unpleasant, I'm rather comfortable with my existence. I also found a bunch of people who trust me about as much as I trust them.
Which is to say, about as far as I could throw a Boeing 747. So that's perfect, I'm in my society.
Okay, granted, the bit about the odd-looking person shoving you in an alleyway happens more often than I care to admit, but it sure as hell isn't how it always or even usually happens. It's just the way the people with no imagination or care for the childe's welfare handle things.
You know, the ones who end up as horrible sires and get killed by the Accounting. Usually, they're the ones who had such sires themselves and somehow survived. Getting a little off topic though.
When you're Embraced, you don't fall asleep. You die. You fall, fully expecting never to wake up. Then you do. Hungry. Every vampire's first feeling isn't "cool, I'm a vampire." It's "I NEED FOOD NOW!" And the Hunger never truly dies. Next impression is the Beast, it's awake, roaring mad at sharing a body with a human mind, and it pushes you. You'd damn well better push back. Then, finally, once you've eaten and gotten the Beast to shut up to a quiet mutter, you can start thinking about how cool it is that you're a vampire. Until someone tells you the real rules. And after they drill the Traditions in your head the first time (and there will be many times until you have ingrained them in your nonfunctional liver) your impression should be "oh, shit."
And that is when you truly realize what a vampire is. That moment when you think "oh, shit," that's pretty much the most eloquent way to describe your situation. Have fun with it. My sire told me a very wise thing. There are two kinds of paranoia: total and insufficient. Don't trust anyone, because they're sure as hell not going to trust you to do anything but give them openings to jump on. Welcome to the real world. Things do go bump in the night, and it's time for you to be one of us.