When you start college, your world will change. People aren't joking when they say "nothing is the same" once you start university. Your freshman year of college marks the beginning of a whole new life, whether you like it or not. These are just a few of the things that are different in college.
1. People will start to move on.
When you’re in college, there will be tons of people who walk in and out of your life. It starts as soon as you get to your new school. More likely than not, you won’t talk to your friends who went to different colleges. You might not talk to the person who was your best friend in high school anymore, even though you’re going to the same college. You might run into the girl you used to sit next to every day and text until two o’clock in the morning and realize you don’t know her anymore. There is a 90% chance that you won’t continue to talk to a single person that you have a class with this semester once the semester is over. Just remember that it’s okay to lose and gain friends on a regular basis — it’s normal.
2. You will work harder than you ever have before.
I once had a professor who, on the first day of classes, made it clear that a college degree is not supposed to be easy to get. You are going to have to work for it, no matter what your major is. Your classes will be harder than the ones you took in high school, and you will have a lot more reading to do and papers to write. You might need to get a job, and that will take up even more of your time. Being busy is part of being in college.
3. You will not get as much sleep.
4. You become entirely responsible for your own decisions.
Before you got to college, you probably had a parent reminding you to do your homework, go to bed early, and clean up your room. As soon as you graduate, all of that goes away. If you want to stay up until 3 o’clock in the morning, that’s your choice. If you want to let the dishes in the sink stack up to the ceiling, you get to make that call. If you want to skip class and forget about your assignments, you can do that too. At the end of the day, the only person who your decisions will impact is you. What do you want your life to look like?
5. You have to consciously decide to eat healthily.
There’s a good chance that at one point during your childhood, you complained about not being able to have pizza for dinner or a second can of soda after school. Your parents probably told you "no" when you wanted to survive entirely on Cheetos and Rockstar that one weird summer before eighth grade; or when you asked if you could pass on the side of green beans at dinner. Chances are, your parents bought your food, cooked your dinner, and ultimately decided what you were going to eat for you. Part of the reason the freshman fifteen exists is that once you’re in college, there is nothing standing between you and all of the unhealthy food you probably want more than you’re willing to admit. But you’ll learn pretty quickly that you need to take care of yourself - which includes making healthy choices when it comes to your meals. It’s just part of what you have to do.
6. You will have to develop your own life skills.
When you’re in high school, if your car breaks down on the side of the road, you can call your parents and they’ll take care of it. You probably don’t have to go grocery shopping for yourself. If you have a job, your parents will probably do your taxes for you, or they’ll at least help you along the way. You didn’t have to know how to do these things, so you probably didn’t care about learning how to do them. I know I didn't. All of these luxuries vanish as soon as you get to college. You have to know how to take care of these things yourself, and you’ll have to learn quickly if you don't know already.
