Ways to Discover Your Identity in College
1. Join a club or organization.
For your major, for your interests, to make friends and to overall learn more about personal talents and interests. Most colleges and universities have thousands of clubs for students to get involved in and try out. A great piece of advice may be to join clubs relevant to your field(s) of study or major; getting involved in an extracurricular form of your major can help you decide if you are studying the best subject for you, and if you are, it will help you gain experience and network more.
2. Learn about or consider Greek life.
Greek life isn’t for everyone, but it can be a good outlet for networking, philanthropic work and an enhanced social scene. People that were very social in high school often find that they thrive in Greek life scenes when coming into college. Many fraternities and sororities heavily participate in cultural scenes and philanthropic work which often helps people find a sense of identity and purpose in college.
3. Participate in community service or join a service group.
Every university or college has clubs or service groups which help around the community through things such as food banks or larger service projects. Participating in community service can help oncoming freshman find a sense of purpose and meet new friends who love to serve as well. People who were in Key Club or National Honor Society in high school can easily enjoy and fall into service lifestyles in college.
4. Develop an active social life to solidify your friend group.
Go to all the freshmen events even if they seem lame. This is the easiest time to meet people and people tend to be most open to making friends at this time. Many people will tell you that as college progresses it gets increasingly more difficult to make friends because everyone gets very busy and has already found their friend groups.Get to know your surroundings and hotspots in your city or dorm town so that you have fun yet inexpensive things to do on the weekends.5. Learn about religious college communities that are fitting and participate in one that reflects your values and beliefs.
Regardless of your religion or faith, many universities and colleges have organizations to help you meet people who practice the same faith as you! Having a religious community in college can help you stay accountable and find genuine friends.6. Keep in touch with your family.
As the weeks progress you continually learn all of the things you didn’t actually know about until you had to do it on your own. Laundry becomes more complex for boys and clothing management and organizational skills become a bit harder for girls. Calls to mom fade out until the first few weeks of hype are over and the laundry has pile up and your dorm room doesn’t seem large enough to hold all of your clothes and belongings in an organized manner. The most important calls back home however are the ones where genuine and quality conversations occur – you skype the dog, FaceTime your grandparents, ask your younger siblings how school is going and share a funny borderline inappropriate story with your parents (while almost telling on yourself). Be intentional with your phone calls home!
7. Develop relationships with your professors and peers.
Look into minors and certificates that you could possibly be interested in in the future and ask other students and professors advice on how to make the most out of your studies! Believe it or not networking often begins the very first day of classes so keep up your rep, dot your I’s and cross your t’s because potential employers, deans and mentors are often watching even when it seems like you are but a needle in the freshmen haystack.
