As a college freshman, the last few months have brought lots of changes in my life. In just one summer I had to prepare for the huge transition of living at home and going to high school to living on campus at college. I spent the summer leading up to the beginning of my first semester wondering how I was going to react to all of these sudden changes. As much as I'd like to, it's impossible to predict how the future will unfold. Here are some "expectations vs. reality" scenarios of how I have been adjusting to college life.

Living "On My Own"/Adulting

A big concern for me coming into college was whether or not I can function as a so-called "adult" and get things done without reminders from teachers or my parents. As it turns out, you're not entirely living on your own in college, especially freshman year. Yeah, you're responsible for getting yourself up in the morning and feeding yourself, but you're constantly surrounded by people in your dorm that can keep you accountable. If I really don't want to take a shower one day and I see other people being responsible humans, I feel more motivated to do that. If I see people eating healthy food in the dining hall, I feel more inclined to eat healthily. Same thing goes for studying. At college you're in an academic climate all the time, you must feel at least some motivation to study. I'm also a fairly independent person and into the later years of high school, I didn't need much guidance from other adults to get stuff done. When I actually get an apartment and have to pay bills and stuff, then I'll be really adulting. Fortunately, even though you're technically an adult at 18, you don't have to be an adult just yet.

Living With Another Human

A major concern for a lot of incoming college freshman is the roommate situation. Will I like her? Will she like me? Can I actually live with another person? I'm a really quiet person and I like my personal space, so I was slightly nervous about what moving into a dorm would be like. I had also heard so many roommate horror stories from older friends already in college. I was lucky enough to join a group chat of accepted students during the last few months of my senior year of high school. A bunch of us started pairing off and decided to request each other as roommates. My roommate and I were a perfect match! (*disclaimer: my roommate said I could write about roommate things so shout out to Tayla, you're rad) We both go to bed early because we're old ladies on the inside and we're both really quiet and introverted. Most importantly, we share the same love of cats. Even though I picked my roommate instead of getting a random person, I was still nervous about it. There are people who pick their roommate and end up having roommate issues. Fortunately, after a little awkwardness at the beginning of the semester, we're really in sync with each other. We eat most of our meals together because that's just what happens when your roommate is your best pal and you don't make friends that easily. We do homework at the same time, so the room is quiet when it needs to be. We spent our Friday nights playing board games because we're really cool. The thing I've learned about roommates from my own experience and from observing other roommate situations is, you shouldn't go into college expecting to be best friends but it's really awesome if it does happen.

Living Away From Home

For the first 18 years of my life, I lived in the same house. I went to the same public school system from elementary school through high school. The longest I had been away from home was two weeks for a family vacation to Europe. The longest I had been away from home without my parents was five days for science camp in 5th grade. Before college, I hadn't experienced many dramatic changes in my living situation. Even though school is only an hour away from home, living at school was a big deal for me. I was really worried about being homesick. My house is all I've ever known as a home. I tell my parents everything. And how the heck was I supposed to live without my cat? Surprisingly, the homesickness hasn't been that bad. The first time I went home was in early October for fall break, six weeks after school started. The week leading up to fall break, I was really excited to go home, sleep in my own bed, and see my family, but the homesickness was more just missing home rather than dreading school. College is so busy you barely have time to think about being homesick. I think homesickness really hits people when they don't like the new place they're in. For me, I'm really enjoying college. It's an adjustment and I miss my home life but I genuinely like being here. Time goes by so fast and before you know it, you're back home for another break. I'm especially excited for winter break coming up because fall break and Thanksgiving were definitely way too short.

School Work

Lastly, a major concern for me coming into college was the work. Could I really handle college-level work? I mean yeah I got myself into this school but my senior year of high school was pretty much a joke. I hadn't done real intensive academic work since junior year, and I had definitely never experienced college-level work. The truth is, college is hard, but it's manageable. The work I've done this semester is the hardest I've ever done but they're in classes that I chose to take, so I enjoy it (tell that to me when I have to write another terrible essay). Being at this new place with all these really smart people, I have to constantly remind myself that I was accepted here just like everyone else. I deserve to be here and I can handle the workload.

So those are just some thoughts about how I have personally adjusted to college compared to how I thought I would. I know every college experience is different for everyone, but college is so much more manageable than I expected.