As I finished my finals, packed up my room, and said goodbye to freshman year, I sat reflecting on the year as a whole. Every memory is engraved in my mind like they happened the night before. There were so many highs, and many lows. There were many laughs and many tears. Yet looking back, I think about how much I have grown as an individual. Yes, you go to college to get a degree, but along the way you become a much more mature person that your high school self might not be able to recognize. Here’s what freshman year taught me:
1. Sometimes being a good friend is more important than your feelings in the moment.
There were times during my freshman year that I was stuck in tricky situations with being a supportive friend for others. Sometimes, I didn’t always want to exert the energy to comfort and help resolve issues. No matter what age you are, girls will always have drama. But I’ve learned through this year that to build relationships with others you have to be willing to sacrifice your time to be there for your friends no matter what. Whether it’s staying up at 11 p.m. at night because your roommate doesn’t feel well, or comforting someone going through relationship struggles, being a supportive friend will only create closer bonds. If you want someone to be there for you, you should be willing to be there for them.
2. Not everyone wants to be your friend.
Whether it’s mean professors, guys, girls, group members, etc., they won’t always be nice. There will be times when you just want to ask them what made them wake up on the wrong side of the bed, but that’s life. This year I’ve learned that I can’t please everyone in life, and life is too short to try to do so. Not everyone is going to be in agreement with the way you live your life but that’s OK because it is not their life to live.
3. One of the most important things I’ve learned from this year is to not wish time away.
Many times throughout the semester I found myself looking forward to the end of the year. Yet, when the end came I became filled with emotions about how fast the year went by. Time is valuable. I will never be a freshman in college, living in a dorm room again and those will be some of my most memorable moments in life. We aren’t guaranteed another day on earth so we need to live in the moment and make each day count. I learned to stop looking forward when one day I’ll be longing to be young again.
4. Freshman year also taught me that it’s OK to be sad.
College is fun, but not every moment is a blast. There are times you miss your parents, your mom’s cooking, your dog, your bed, and your friends from back home. Since I could barely ever go home, I got homesick quite frequently. But it’s OK to feel this way and it’s okay to cry. You go from 18 years to being at home to being thrown into adulthood pretty fast. That is a reason enough to have the right to be sad every now and then.
5. Lastly, freshman year taught me that there is so much more to life than school.
Yes, we go to college to get an education and degree but that does not define life. Life is too short to be constantly overcome with stress about what to study for and what is due in the upcoming months. If you work diligently those tasks will get done. I learned to enjoy my time as a freshman because if this year went by that fast then college is going to be done before I know it. When I graduate, get a job, get married, have kids, etc., there will be so many other responsibilities that will make stressing out about school seem so small. I learned that school is just a piece to the larger puzzle of life.