College is nothing like high school. I repeat, college is absolutely nothing like high school. Starting off you don't have to ask to use the restroom, and you don't have to go to class every day. Sure, your GPA might suffer but the amount of freedom experienced in college is one of the best feelings that come with being an adult. Spending nights in your room binge-watching Netflix, and procrastinating homework by going out on Thursday nights only to wind up drunk, alone in your room with your makeup smeared and your dress stained. The key word is alone.

Every day can feel like a struggle when you are waking up and eating breakfast alone, walking to class alone and finally getting back to your room by the end of the day, winding up spending the night alone. Now I am a major advocate for quality over quantity and my handful of friends fills my life with more joy than I can explain. Yet every night I have a sense of wanting more. Wishing I had rushed for a sorority, contemplating if I had signed up for that club, I could have made more friends. Wondering if I had spoken out in class to that guy sitting in front of me if at the end of the day, I would have more connections to people than just my main group.

In high school, you spent four years with the same people. Getting to know which group of kiddos you felt comfortable being with, allowing yourself to venture out and not being afraid to talk to the guy in your algebra class. And then college rolled around. You said goodbye to all of your high school friends, remaining in touch with just a few of them after graduation. Class sizes tripled in size and your professor has no idea what your name is. The loneliness can swallow you whole. Feeling as though each day is a struggle to make friends and feeling like a complete idiot when you make a joke to the girl sitting next to you who gives you a pity laugh.

At the end of the day, all you have is yourself.

Like I said before, quality over quantity, but college is all about crawling out of your safe warm comfort zone. Take that workout class alone, go join a new club about something that has no connection to your major. Do informal recruitment, even if it is just for the open house to meet a room full of girls who actually take time to format the perfect Instagram theme. Feeling alone in college is the worst, being separated from life-long friends and having to make all new ones, but if you embrace the loneliness and take time to find what you want then you can go on the hunt for new and improved friends. And who knows, by the end of the semester you might just have found life-long friends you couldn't imagine going a day without.