After completing my first semester of college, I was drained. My brain felt numb, my body was exhausted, and I kept repeating “don’t make me think while I’m on break.” This may be a little melodramatic, but I was truly shocked at how difficult my first semester turned out. Now, I went to a good high school; I was fairly well-prepared by the curriculum and faculty. But teachers would boast about how one day all of us students would come back and thank them for preparing us so thoroughly for collegiate level courses. We would even say college was easy compared to our high school. Lies! College is so much more than going to class and doing homework. What I was prepared for in high school was how to complete several hours of busywork and memorize information long enough to ace a test. But college is way more dynamic and challenging. So here are the eight things high school did not teach me.

1. The weird schedule can help you or hurt you.

I love the block schedule of college classes. I only go to the same class two or three times a week. But high school had zero part in preparing me for anything other than the numbingly mundane schedule. Now I get to plan my own classes, decide what time and with what professor. Everyday is a fresh schedule unique to itself, and I get to deicide how it turns out. Whereas in high school you are forced to go to class each day, where the teacher can watch you like a hawk; you went to class because it was mandatory. Now, you do not have to show up. No one is there counting your absences, calling your parents if you skip. It is your responsibility to get up for class and stay on top of everything, otherwise you fail the class and waste money. High school did not teach you the importance of showing up to class to learn; rather, you showed up to class so that you didn’t get detention for missing to many unexcused days.

2. Homework cannot be blown off.

First of all, college is not easier than high school! Maybe freshman year of the required credits you can get away with slacking, but once you get into the classes of your major, the challenges become real. You can’t sleep through class anymore. These courses are now preparing you for the job that you will have for the rest of your life. Chances are, you will probably be learning some important stuff, and you have to pay attention.

Secondly, college is so much reading. A ridiculous amount. If you let yourself slip behind on assignments just one week, you will be hammered with work the next week, trying to catch up on top of new assignments. You have to keep up with your work, especially the reading, or else good luck with finals week, my friend. The stuff you are learning in college is more important, and you should want to be learning from the classes in your major. After all, if you don’t want to learn about it now, why would you want to spend the rest of your life doing it?

3. Freedom comes with responsibility.

You cannot understand the amount of freedom you receive in college until you are living it. Literally, you can do whatever you want without asking your parents; its crazy! You want to go to Taco Bell at 4 in the morning? Chances are there are several other people still awake who will tag along with you. You want to sleep through all of your classes and then stay up all night? Your parents cannot stop you. You can do anything without permission. This, obviously, has its downs. This is why the freshman 15 and academic probation are a thing. With great freedom comes great responsibility, and this responsibility is not introduced to you in high school. You simply cannot understand the amount of freedom until you experience it yourself.

4. Emotions are crazy, but they are OK.

Emotions are crazy in young people. Emotions are crazy in general. So stick 100 sleep-deprived young adults living in the same hall and let the emotions do their thing. Even if you live on a floor of the nicest, most patient people ever, eventually the emotions will catch up and their will be a meltdown or two. Now, this comes from a girl who cries on a regular basis like its part of my religion. But nonetheless, it is undeniable that at some point, emotions will flare on your floor. It can be a combination of unfortunate events that will cause the meltdown: being away from home too long, getting a poor grade on a paper, an extra stressful week, getting in a fight with a suitemate, finding out your significant other hooked up with someone at a party, the list goes on. And it can be the simplest thing that will flip the switch. Whether it be not getting a text back from bae or seeing a really cute video of a puppy, once the floodgates open, you have to let the tears run their course. Sometimes you don’t even know why you are crying, and that’s fine.

Emotions are crazy, but they are natural, and you have to let your body express itself in a healthy way. Even though you had emotions in high school, now there is no break from them. When you go home in college, you are going home to neighbors and a roommate. So sometimes emotions can be built up for too long until there is an explosion. Realize you might react differently than you did in high school, but that it is completely normal to go through emotional changes as you are figuring out your life!

5. Loneliness can sneak up on you.

I never thought I could feel so lonely living so close to other people. Not that I became depressed, which can fiercely affect some college students, but I had several bouts of fighting off some serious loneliness. A lot of the times, I would separate myself. I would be hanging out in a group and get jealous of a girl who was getting attention from a cute guy and I would go and pout; or the girls on my floor would neglect to ask me to go to lunch with them when my door was closed; or I would choose to stay in my room and sleep than go out with my roommate. Whatever the silly reason for my initial isolation from social events, it is so easy to let the tiredness and stress of college make you feel alone. Its hard to combat the evil thoughts of seclusion once they get planted in your head. Its hard to remember that you are loved by so many people, and you are not alone. High school does not tell you that you will probably feel left out and lonely at one point or another in college, and it does not teach you how to resist letting yourself feel alone. Its important to find healthy boundaries of solitude while still being social and taking care of yourself in all aspects, and this you will just have to learn on your own.

6. Missing home can be extreme.

I have never been away from my mom for more than a week before I moved into college. Then it was several weeks before I saw her again. Growing up is weird as you start to realize that your parents are no longer really your caretakers, but now they are just other adults. Thinking about it too much can be really scary, and it even starts to make me sad sometimes. Especially after returning from a break. The first few days are hard. I miss my bed, I miss my personalized food cabinets, and I miss my family so much. In high school, I had never experienced this amount of separation from my childhood, and now adult life is becoming surreal. Never again will I be a kid. I am always be my parents’ child, but now I am an adult, too. Things are different now. But that’s OK. Make sure your parents know you miss them and that you appreciate everything they have done for you, because in a blink of an eye it could be your kids telling you they miss you from college.

7. Thanksgiving break actually sucks.

This is not a joke. While I will always be thankful for the holiday of giving thanks, and any break for that matter, Thanksgiving break is the biggest tease out there. You go home, sleep in, eat some really good food, see your hometown friends, get lots of love from family, and then five days later they ship you back to school and you have to finish the last three weeks before winter break. You get just a small taste of the sweet freedom that is just around the corner, only after you finish the five tests and three papers you have left. It's just not that intense in high school.

8. You are going to love college, even if you hate it at times.

With how hectic everything seems after first semester, I am already looking back at all the wild memories I have made. I’ve only been at this school for five months and I am already so in love with my experience. The next few years will be crazy, and emotional, and fantastic all at the same time, and that’s what makes it so remarkable. It is so much living and growing in four years, you cannot be told about it in a classroom setting; you just have to jump in and live it yourself. These are the glory days, aren’t they? So live it up, and don’t drive yourself insane in the process.