As I prepared myself for the adventure that is freshman year of college, I continuously chanted in my head that it would be just like camp, and I would be completely fine, I was slightly right -- but also way wrong. College is nothing like sleepaway camp. Once I actually arrived at Oneonta, and my parents' car drove farther and farther away from campus, I realized how wrong I actually was. Don't get me wrong, college has been amazing the two weeks I've been here so far, but it is definitely not just like camp.
College is way more real. No longer do I have an amazing counselor by my side telling me what our days will hold and when I'm going to be eating every meal, and my best friends aren't here with me either, I have to make new ones. Being in college truly is the next step to being an adult, and it is kind of scary. As independent as I was, saying goodbye to my mom and dad every summer as they left me at a place more than eight hours away, it was a lot different than watching them leave me here at Oney, which is only three.
College life gives you way more free time than you will know what to do with because you have maybe three classes a day scattered about, and it is totally okay to take naps or binge watch Netflix in the five hours you have between classes. As we enter our third week of classes it has truly hit me, clubs and teams are starting, and you won't get picked because you've been going here since you were eight or because the captain is your junior counselor.
Although college and camp are way more different than I realized, camp did teach me a few valuable lessons that I carry with me every day. Three lessons that sleep away camp taught me was that it is totally and completely okay to open yourself up to people you may not necessarily hang out with at home, or back in high school. It has also taught me to be open to new experiences even though they might be scary, and to not let fear of the unknown keep me from trying.
As the year picks up pace, and things really get started on campus, I look back to my years as a camper and relish in the memories I made as I continue making new ones with new people at a place that is shaping me for my near future.
