1. You appreciate the little things...like Cottonelle toilet paper or mom's cooking.
College teaches you to not take things for granted. It is already bad enough living in a small room with more people than can fit. You quickly realize that the little things truly matter. Never again will you under appreciate daily things that you never realized were so good, like a home cooked meal, not noodles for every meal or soft toilet paper because you can only afford the cheap kind, and a roommate that isn't an inconsiderate psychopath...
2. Your friends' at home true colors start to show and you realize most of them are not really your friends.
One of the most important lessons you learn your first year of college is who your real friends are and what it means to be a real friend. You eventually stop talking to the people from your high school and realize that all the promises that were made senior year to keep in touch and hang out when you are home were empty. Along with realizing who really matters you finally understand how childish and irrelevant high school drama was and that some of the people you expected to be your best friends forever are only best friends for a little while.
3. They were not lying...you can not have a good GPA, good night's sleep, and a good social life, you can only pick two.
Choose wisely, college has more temptations than you can imagine and though you always believed you could do it all college will quickly prove you wrong and catch up to you. Eventually you will learn from your mistakes and your, "ragrets" and pick the better options, but it truly is a hard decision when fomo is a real thing, you need good grades to stay in school and have a future, but sleep...sleep is all you want and more.
4. Finally being on your own was fun at first...until "adulting" gets to hard and calling your mom to fix your problems is all you want to do.
It is okay to miss your mom and it will happen, but freshman year you realize that college is meant for you to learn how to do things on your own but, no one ever told you how frustrating the world can be. You will face moments of weakness and cry and scream and realize that though all you want to do is be on your own and not let the world win, it is okay to phone a friend AKA your mom that some how always knows the answer.
5. They were not lying to you again...the friends you make at college are your friends for life.
Unfortunately you find out that your high school friends may not last forever, but there is always a bright side. Freshman year you understand this magical concept that if you do not like someone you do not have to be fake and pretend that you are friends and you can easily avoid them! In college you will find the friends that last a lifetime and finally understand what a soulmate is as you go on crazy adventures at wee hours of the night to get the food you were craving, try and get back home, or just being silly and reckless. All of these golden friendships start your freshman year and I promise there are people that accept your weirdness and encourage it because they are the exact same way.
6. You feel invincible because when you do something embarrassing everyone just laughs and says, "It's okay, you are only a freshman."
The beauty of freshman year is that everyone knows you are young and dumb, but your embarrassing actions are justified because you are just a freshman to the rest of the school. Never in your life will you wish to be the youngest class except your freshman year of college and the next three years that fly by you will wish you could be a freshman again, because there is no quite feeling like it.
7. College is not like high school, you can not study for your exam the class before and you will write more papers than you thought you were capable of, yet you still feel like you have no time to get it all done.
Something you are going to want to learn quickly is that school work and the effort you put in, in high school is no where near equivalent to what you have to do in college. Yes freshman year is trial and error, but it is also the base of your GPA so when you have two papers, a quiz, and a test, studying the hour or so before will never work to your benefit and you can not BS your way through school anymore. The library will become your second home and all nighters for school work are not just a myth. Classes really matter and teachers will not help you when your procrastination habit shines through your work. So thank your high school for not actually preparing you for college.
8. You will regret not taking advantage of nap time when you were a child, because sleep is the most precious thing this world has to offer.
When you were younger all you wanted to do was stay up late and avoid sleep at all costs because, "Sleep is for the weak." That motto still stands in college because sleep is hard to fit in your always filled schedule, but sleeping is all you ever want to do and your tiny twin bed is the most amazing thing on campus. Freshman year you never truly realize how sleep deprived you are until you go home for Christmas Break and sleep the whole month away like a hibernating bear.
9. Lastly and worst of all, college will not last forever and you figured this out when you have a month left of your freshman year, even though it feels like yesterday you moved in.
College is the most amazing time of your life, and freshman year is just the start of it, but they do say, "Time flies when you are having fun." Now you know they rarely lie, Freshman year goes by so fast and feels like a blur that you want to hold on to forever. So soak it in, stop taking things for granted, and take a nap here and there. Because you are only a freshman once so take and run with all it has to offer and do not wish any of its time away.
