These will be the hardest year of your life, but they will also be the best. Everything you have learned up until this point will be used to your advantage. You won't be watched and hassled by teachers. Your professors won't see you as just another student, but as an individual. If you think that college will just fly by and nothing will change than you are in for a wake up call. This will change your life.
1. Your college friends.
Never again will you meet irreplaceable friends that you find in less than 4 years. They share the same values as you, not just the same homeroom. Your college friends will show up at 3 a.m. with ice cream in hand if you text them. They show you that people will love you for you.
2. You don't have to do everything.
Getting involved is the best way to put yourself out there. But the longer you are in college, the more you realize that you can pick and choose what you want to do. You can drop that club if you want to. Decide what your passionate about and stick with it.
3. You learn so much about yourself through all your struggles and accomplishments.
You realize that everything you have been through up until now is just getting you ready for the future. Your struggles have built you up even when it felt like they were tearing you apart. Be proud of everything you have done because you deserve it.
4. You learn that obstacles are only temporary.
That test will be over soon. That class will end soon. Your pay check will eventually come. Just keep pushing forward.
5. Your relationship with your family changes.
You never really realize how much your parents do for you. They make you dinner, they take care of your car, they are there when you need them. When you move away they are still there but it changes. When your siblings move to college, you know exactly what to say. When they call you and need advice, you know exactly how they feel. You just wish that you could run and give your family a hug. Remember to thank them for getting you where you are.
6. You find answers to questions you didn't know existed.
Your classes will expand your mind and your views on the world. The world will seem so much larger when you start college. You will stop listening to what others have to say and start thinking for yourself.
7. You realize that someone always has it worse than you.
I never truly comprehended the troubles that others were going through until I was in college. I learned my freshman year that there are millions of people worldwide suffering with struggles I couldn't even imagine. At my sorority's annual ANAD vigil so many people shared about their body and self confidence issues. They all have survived more than I could imagine.
8. It becomes obvious that social status is temporary and eventually will be irrelevant.
Not everything in life can be evaluated in money. Our memories and experiences are all different. While in college we are all poor and struggling, but one day every person will have a job. Upper-class, middle-class, or lower-class, we all start off somewhere.
9. You learn to question everything.
Why do I want this major? Why did I come to college? What do I care about? Why can't I find someone? Why am I here? What am I going to do for the world?
10. Although college is fun, the real world needs you and you need to help the real world.
Every day closer to graduation is every day closer to when you will be bettering your community. You will become an active citizen of the town you live in. Some may help the entire world through medicine, law, or kindness. It all starts one person at a time, one day at a time.
11. This is only the beginning.
Whether you are a freshman in their first year or a senior in their fifth year, this is just the beginning. College is only one chapter in your life. Take it in stride and with a grain of salt. Get involved and put yourself out there. Love and lose. Laugh often and laugh loud. There won't be a time again where you can fail and be given the second chances we get here.
