Even though I am only a sophomore in college, I have learned so much about myself since the beginning of my freshman year. I became more independent, more driven and more knowledgable over the course of a year. I have learned so many valuable and important life lessons. Looking back on freshman year, a lot happened. But as they say, hindsight is 20/20, and although things may have seemed like a big deal back then, they have helped make me a better, stronger person. If I could go back in time, I would give my freshman self the following advice:
It's OK to not get good grades in every class you take.
I have always been a perfectionist when it comes to my schoolwork. Sometimes I miss the mark with assignments or tests, and I used to be hard on myself about it. To this day, this is still something I struggle with, but I have definitely gotten better over the course of a year. College is meant to be hard. Getting As is way harder than it was in high school. The work is meant to be challenging. A bad grade is not a B or a C. There will always be classes that are harder than others, and getting a few bad grades on assignments or even in the class is not the end of the world. Take a breath and know that as long as you try, you are not failing anything.
Your opinions and views will change.
For most people, growing up with your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. probably meant that you heard their beliefs and opinions on everything. It is not wrong if you go away to school and take classes that contradict what you've heard your whole life. That's what college is all about. It's about finding out who you truly are as an individual, and that includes what you think about political issues, pop culture and just about everything in between.
You will find out who your true friends are.
Freshman year, for me, was all about getting involved and getting to know as many people as possible. My friend group was huge. But as time progressed, people came and went in my life. Starting my sophomore year, my friend group was down to half of the people I hung out with all of freshman year. At first, I took this very much to heart, thinking it was something I had done. And maybe it was, or maybe it was just the fact that we clicked with different people and got involved with other extracurricular activities and went our own ways. But the most important thing to know is that as the years go on in college, you will know who your true friends are: the ones that stick by your side no matter what and become your partners in crime. Ultimately, you will be so glad you realized that you are better off without the people you have lost touch with over time.
Things will get hard. But things will also get easier.
I spent a lot of my freshman year homesick. It's totally normal to want to go home when things get hard at school. I had a lot of anxiety about starting college and spent my first weekend as a nervous wreck. That was how I felt a lot of days as a freshman. It's difficult to adjust sometimes. College is a huge change in anyone's life. But a year later, I rarely feel homesick. I'm used to living away from home and I actually enjoy it.
This also applies to anything in life. Life gets hard. You'll get stressed out and overwhelmed, and you will feel like things couldn't get easier. But, that's the beautiful thing about life—where there's bad, there's also good.
Freshman year was a rocky one for me, especially in the beginning. But freshman year was also really incredible. It made me step outside my comfort zone and allowed me to learn so much about myself and others. I look back on my freshman year as a wonderful learning experience, because it helped me become who I am today.
