I remember when I graduated high school, everyone was giving me advice for the next four years of college. Most of it seemed like pretty solid advice, and I took pointers, but there were still some things I wasn't given advice for. I got to thinking about some of the things I wish someone had told me when I was a graduating senior, and I made a list of three things I thought were fairly important.
1. You don't have to be like everyone else
When I was a senior I felt extremely stressed out because I didn't graduate with tons of medals, awards, and scholarships. In fact, seeing everyone with all of those things made me feel a little bad that I hadn't tried harder in high school. I also felt really stupid because I didn't get directly into Clemson. I spent my freshman year in the Bridge to Clemson program, and all my close friends got directly into their top choice college. I didn't really have a top choice college to be honest. I just wanted to get into a university. When I got to college I still felt this tremendous pressure to do just as good as everyone else, but I quickly realized that it didn't matter. All of the things I was worried about didn't really matter. I was in the Bridge program because it's where God needed me to be. I wasn't dumb for being there, and it was okay that I was at a technical college. The past three years of college have taught me that you don't even have to be like everyone else. You need to make sure you're doing what's best for you and not what's best for others. You're the one that is going to live your life, so you should do what you need to do to be successful and not worry about others.
2. You're not always going to get along with your roommates
I got lucky with my roommates, but we did have our off days. You have to remember that you were all raised in different households with different rules and ways of living. Of course you're going to have differences and misunderstandings about things. I can guarantee you will have discrepancies about how you want your dorm/apartment to look or how clean you want it to be, how many people you can have over and when, and who ate who's food. It's totally normal to have petty problems like that. Work it out, forgive each other, and move on. It's not worth ruining a friendship over something like that, especially if you have to live with the person for the rest of the year.
3. Friends come and go
Someone who was your childhood best friend may no longer have the same interests as you anymore. You may go to different schools or live in different states, and that makes it especially hard to keeps close. People change and make new friends all of the time. They might have only been meant to be in your life for a certain amount of time, and that's okay. You're making new friends too, and sometimes it can get a little overwhelming trying to keep up with them all. Just be thankful that they were in your life for the time they were. You may even be able to reconnect later on in life.
These were the things that I wished someone had told me about, or if they did, I wish I had listened. I remember being so worried about some of these things, and looking back on it, I realize how silly it all was. So now that you've graduated, go out into the world and be the best version of yourself you can possibly be. There's only one you, and you're great!
