College is a time full of new beginnings and experiences. It can be an exciting and scary transition. Some people move away from home to a new city and step into freedom for the first time. Others may stay living at home but walk onto a campus flooded with new people they've never met and new groups and activities. You can never really know exactly what to expect walking onto a college campus for the first time.
College is definitely more challenging than high school and can be in more ways than one. The workload is heavier, classes are longer, papers get assigned like all the time, you have to actually hike to get to some classes, and don't get me started about parking. There are different levels of challenges and it can be tough. But I think one of the things that can be the most challenging entering college is staying faithful to God.
With all the new people and groups and experiences and activities also comes new temptations, or maybe the same temptations you've dealt with before but this new atmosphere makes it seem harder to turn from. College can also make you feel overwhelmed and stressed and anxious. But, the Lord will never tempt you beyond what you can handle and anxiety and stress and feelings such as those are not of the Lord. So the way to stay clear of all of that is to stay faithful to God. But how?
There's a lot of things that you can do like staying faithful in prayer and reading the Bible of course, but if I had to pick one piece of advice to share with all you incoming freshman it is that community is absolutely everything.
Surround yourself with like-minded people. Find friends who have a heart for the Lord and continuously encourage and lift you up and point you to the cross. Get involved in a church or an on-campus ministry. Within a community, there is support and accountability and those things are vital in staying faithful to God and growing in your relationship with him because we weren't made to do it alone. We were made for community. So, my best advice is to find that good community and be that good community for others and you'll find it much easier to stay rooted in your faith throughout all the things that college might throw your way.
