No matter how hard you try, you'll never be fully prepared for your first year of college. It's simply impossible. Usually, you're living in an entirely new place, surrounded by unfamiliar faces. The lifestyle of a college student is hectic, to say the least. To sum it up, no matter how many "college-level" classes you take in high school, nothing you've ever experienced will match the time that you spend at college. A regular sleep schedule? What is that?
Humans are creatures of habit; we love to feel normal. We yearn to feel comfortable and lean towards the aspects of life that are easy to follow. Transitioning into a college lifestyle does not fit into this. College is stressful; your daily schedule is almost never constant, there are always people you don't know around, and it can take awhile to feel like home. Being thrown into a new environment while being asked to perform well in classes or other activities makes it so easy for you to feel self-conscious. Self-doubt is a vicious creature, as it feeds off of itself. While you're feeling bad about yourself, self-doubt can completely stall any improvements you would've made if you were your normal, confident self.
Being able to attend college is such a great opportunity, and any time used doubting yourself is wasteful. There are so many things that you'll be able to accomplish in life if you stop fearing failure!
You might be thinking that I'm oversimplifying the problem. Maybe I am, or maybe people are overcomplicating the matter. Really, it boils down to this: you need to love yourself in order to feel comfortable enough to accomplish what you really want in life. If you're so worried about the outcome of a situation before you even give yourself a chance to try it out, you won't be able to perform to your fullest.
Believe me, I understand how it feels to not be good enough. In high school, I packed my schedule full of advanced classes, varsity sports, clubs and more. I wanted to prepare for my future, so I tried to apply myself in as many areas as possible. The downside of this was that I spread myself too thin. There were many times that I didn't succeed because I couldn't put all of myself into whatever I was doing. There were so many standards of performance that I had to hit that it could get nerve-wracking. It was easy for me to be intimidated by this, and often I found myself doubting my abilities. What I started to realize by my junior year was that there were some things I held back from doing, just because I was afraid that people would see me fail. I stopped wanting to try out new things because I couldn't tell if I would naturally have a knack for them or if the experience would be a total flop.
This dilemma started impacting how I carried myself. It was very easy for me to get uncomfortable or even defensive — all because I doubted myself and didn't want others to see. In reality, yeah, some of the things I passed up on probably would've been failures. But not all. Not only was I missing out, but my personality was also being negatively impacted by this enigma of self-doubt.
Once I realized this, another question hit me: what am I so afraid of? After failure, what happens?
Well, the answer to that relies on you. If you fail at something, there are two ways you can handle it. You can either: a) shut down, or b) push through it. Failure is an opportunity for self-improvement. If you were the best you could be at everything your first try, life would get pretty boring. There would be no reward in the victories if there were no losses to contrast.
College is hard; classes are jam-packed with tons of information, and at times professors seem like they just don't understand that you're only human. Reading 180 pages of a novel then studying for two other tests in different subjects isn't exactly an ideal night, but as a college student, you try your best to make it happen. Especially since this is a new experience, it's so easy to be plagued by self-doubt. Some people try the whole "fake it 'til you make it" mentality, but this persona can only last so long until it cracks. If you're lagging behind in a class, or you just failed a test, it's okay. As I said before, you're only human. Understand this: you're going to have failures in college. It's inevitable. No one is perfect, no matter how put together they seem from the outside.
If you fail at something, take a step back. Breathe. Then, dig deep inside yourself, and start pushing forward. Yeah, sometimes all you'll want to do is give up. Don't. You can accomplish so much more than you can imagine. Don't limit yourself before you give whatever it is another chance. I promise you'll get through whatever struggle plagues you because you are good enough. You're good enough, I implore you to believe this.
College can suck, but I promise, it's not all bad. You'll get through whatever it is that makes you doubt yourself. Don't be scared, take initiative, and put yourself out there. The new experiences you'll gain from doing this are invaluable. Go out and conquer whatever it is you need to conquer. It might take a few tries, but just believe in yourself. You've got this.
