In honor of my freshman year of college ending, I am dedicating this article to a handful of the many things I learned my freshman year of college. For those of you entering college, I hope you can learn something from my experience, and for those who are already in college, I hope you learned something from your experience as well.

1. It's not all sunny days on the quad with friends.

Now, there is a good chance that this vision was just mine, and none of you had the same perception of college. When applying to college, whenever I thought about my college days, I imagined my pretty-lil-self, dressed cutely in my athletic tee and capris stretched out on a beautiful, green, grass quad, legs stretched out, surrounded by friends, as I did my work. (Sidenote: Looking back, this was a crazy vision for someone who'd chosen pre-med as their focus in college, but a girl could dream, right?) Although that is an oddly-specific vision, while I maybe had a couple of days like this, most of them were very, very different. Of course, weather varies wherever you go to school, but that is not what I am getting at.

No matter how excited one may be to go to college, eventually the work will get to you. You will experience that oh-my-dear-lord-how-am-I-supposed-to-do-this moment within your first few months (don't worry, the shock reduces over time), where you wonder how other college students also managed to write 2 English papers and study for their Bio midterm, all in the matter of one week.

Television is probably the biggest culprit here. In those shows or movies, students rarely do work, study, sacrifice their social life to make those #gains, but it is necessary, and it is worth it. One front in front of the other, through the day, through college.

2.Home means something different.

I hope I can articulate this well, but knowing myself... Well, here I go. Upon starting college, I was SO EXCITED. I was finally an adult. I had to fend for myself, take care of myself, and having a little brother made this much-awaited responsibility seem even grander. While I has on this "high" for a while, where I though I had grown independent of my parents finally, that realization came to an abrupt halt.

Around December, the weather got colder. The campus seemed more obsolete, the workload increased as we inched near the end of the semester and had our first round of finals, and stress was at an all-time-high. While I was up til all hours of the night, stressing, I realized I actually wanted nothing more to be in the arms of my mother.

In high school, I was very, very close to my mother. If I didn't like you, odds are she knows about it (sorry!). But, we spent our afternoons together in the kitchen as she cooked and I did homework, and we talked about everything under the sun. Starting college meant long mornings and nights, and nearly not enough time to eat, let alone talk about life, death, philosophy, religion, and everything else with my mother. While the excitement of college distracted me from this sobering reality for the first few months of college, it hit me later, and pretty hard.

I found myself texting my mother during my long days with broken heart emojis and sad puppy Facebook chat stickers, asking her to visit or if I could come home. Of course the answer to both those questions was always yes, but being so removed from home definitely was a distraction and struggle for me. So, value home when you can, and even when you can't be there.

3. It's not always about eating healthy, but more being healthy.

I know we all, myself included, either fear or have feared the infamous "Freshman 15". But, it wasn't until once day in early October when I passed out after vigorously working out after not eating, that I realized that my physical health was more important than my appearance.

It is definitely a challenge to eat right at college, because fast food chains thrive around those areas, where students are pressed for time, or stress eating/craving. But, if I learned one thing at college, it is meal planning is your best friend. While you don't have to restrict your diet to no carbs, salads, or just fruits and vegetables, it is still a good idea to plan our your meals ahead of time, and pack them so that they're easy to grab and go. Not only will this mold healthier eating habits, but it will also ensure that you are eating on time and consistently.

This is definitely a part of college many students neglect, just because they feel that their academics are more important than their health, and that somehow our bodies will be able to bounce back after being overwhelmed with stress, diluted with tons of caffeine, and packed with greasy, fatty foods. But, if you're not healthy, your brain won't be either, and well... that is just a recipe for disaster (no pun intended).

4. Cramming really, really doesn't work anymore.

This was probably the most startling reality for me. All throughout high school, having taken ~15 AP Classes/Exams throughout my time there, I was able to "sail", for the lack of a better term, through the better part of my high school education. That meant (with the exception of second semester junior year), I could do my homework, spend some time hanging out with family and friends, and get to sleep at a reasonable time, and still be alright. But, now. Ha.

College is a whole new playing field. Believe me when I say, nothing, nothing, nothing is handed to you. You work for your grades, whether you're at an Ivy League or a state school. No material in college can afford you a lifestyle like what I, and maybe you, had in high school. College will require going above the bare minimum. This means better time management. You won't have time to hang out with your friends as much or stare into space and contemplate the purpose of your education.

Instead, you'll find yourself reviewing your notes after a lecture, making study groups of reinforce what was taught to you, and recording lectures so that you can listen to them before your exam. Whether your study methods are the same as mine or not, (in fact I urge you all to spend your first semester discovering what study methods work for you), you will see a (hopefully positive) change in your work ethic.

5. $1 becomes $5.

And no, not because of inflation.

The value of the dollar seems to multiply at college. Maybe this is because you just got a job, or you get an allowance from your parents every month that you have to make work to suit your school and personal needs. But, truly, college does make you notice how much you spend on important things, and even how much money you may have spent on unnecessary things.

Advice: allocate money towards your personal needs and school needs. For example, if you get $100 a month, allocate 50/50 to your personal and academic needs. Take note of what you are spending your money on. If you feel that you are only buying the essentials for each purpose, and that your budget is unbalanced if you split it down the middle, reallocate accordingly. This is a very basic example, but the same paradigm should work for other purposes as well.

6. Fashion is SO yesterday.

You'll spend your first week dressing nicely. If its warm, maybe some nice harem pants and a lace top, or shorts and a crop top, hair well done, eyeliner #onpoint, looking ready to kill the game. While some girls are lucky enough to be able to keep up this appearance throughout their college career, this is in fact a fantasy for some. Time constraints, stress, and the need for that extra comfort on test day often results in some of us sporting kinda-cute baggy sweater, leggings (1/10 different variations of black), and timberlands. Okay, so that was my wardrobe for the later half of first semester and the beginning half of second semester, but you get my point.

While it is important to focus on school and not your looks, your self-esteem definitely shouldn't be on the "back-burner" (I feel old for using that phrase). It is not secret that it would be hard to focus on school and doing well, if you don't even feel good about yourself. Therefore, I urge all of you, be it boy or girl, to not solely focus on looking good throughout the academic year, but still make sure you're in a place where you feel confident about who you are, and that you maybe look, but more importantly feel ready to kill the game.

7. No one cares that you have a boyfriend/girlfriend.

Now, this was probably the biggest shock coming into college. All throughout the majority of your life, relationship were probably respected. No one would pursue someone in a relationship, nor would anyone in a relationship pursue anyone else. But, coming into college showed me that not only a number of dynamics were different, but also relationship dynamics were different.

While I cannot make this a generalization, what I will say it - do not come into college with any expectation, whether you are or are not in a relationship. Don't let what others think about relationships influence you, and don't go in with preconceived notions about what you think relationships in college should be like.

8. You'll realize who your true friends are.

At the end of senior year, you'll write innumerable heartfelt messages in the yearbooks of all your closest friends, making empty promises of keeping in touch, hanging out every break, and never replacing them no matter who you meet at college. Well, the truth is, it won't be true for everyone you say that to, but it will be for a handful that are worth it.

Swamped with work and restricted schedule, it becomes clear who is a priority to you, and who makes you a priority in their lives. And those are the ones who you are worth it. At this point in your life, you'll only need people who will understand that your friendship isn't always a priority, but that doesn't mean you have forgotten them. You need people that will support your academic endeavors, cheer for you, and understand when you can't answer their texts during midterms week. It'll be easy, once you start, to weed out whose important, but just keep that in mind.

9. You're not the biggest fish in the pond anymore.

And to sum it up. Sorry, you're not as awesome as you thought you were. College is a whole new playing field, a whole new world, if you may. While you may have been the smartest student in your 10th grade Algebra class, or gotten all 5s on all of your AP exams, college is a whole new way of learning, with new challenges to overcome, new competitions, and new material to learn. Just remember - you won't be the best, and that's perfectly okay. As long as you're your best, that's all that matters.

10. Pain is temporary, but your GPA lasts forever.

Yeah, no further notes on that.

This was long, but I hope that someone out there heeds my advice, and that my words that are the fruits of a long year of hard-work, diligence, and sleepless nights will provide some insight and help to an incoming freshman. If you are in college already and could relate to what I'm talking about, congrats! You made it.