College is really tough.
High School seniors, I'm talking to you.
College is difficult, but maybe not in the ways you might expect. Professors are people too – not all-powerful beings that only care about your tuition. They are generally very forgiving if you communicate with them (especially if you attend a small school).
Some assignments are actually easier than those from high school (I think reading a chapter in a book is definitely easier than 30 trigonometry problems).
Don't expect constant academic struggle – some people thrive in this new environment. You don't go to the same class four days a week, and you have so much time, especially during the first few months of your first semester, with your schedule full of Gen Eds. (Of course, this isn't usually the norm as the semester goes along, but college isn't the nightmare your high school teachers preach.)
College is definitely academically challenging, no matter what major you pursue, but one of the hardest parts is dealing with the collision of the spheres of your life that you're used to keeping separate.
You live at school. Your academic life, social life and home life gets all mixed together. Everything seems to be crashing down all at once: you're behind in schoolwork, juggling new friendships and you just want to take a nap.
You have to quickly realize the faults in your old study habits, unlearn them, and learn new, effective ones while staying on top of everything.
You learn that you've been studying wrong this whole time. You learn that your time management skills are complete 💩, which doesn't help because now you have a lot of time... too much, yet never enough.
You rapidly learn who you are through many, many conflicts:
You realize even though you're an extrovert, you still need peace and quiet.
You learn that you can maybe love people better when you don't live with them.
You learn your body can't handle 5 all-nighters a week and you physically can't live off caffeine.
You learn that you can do a lot of things you never would have done if you weren't thrown into adulthood so far from mommy and daddy.
Yet, as you learn so much about yourself, never before have you felt so lost.
You really ask yourself who you are, what you're made for, what your passions are and what you're destined to do and be. Do I really love this? Do I really want to do this my whole life?
You want to make friends and have new experiences, but you still crave the familiar faces and the comfort of home.
Above all, you learn that college is really tough... But so are you.
