If you're a college freshman this fall, chances are your emotions are all over the place. You are experiencing fear, excitement and stress at maximum levels all at once, and that's okay. That is how you are supposed to be feeling, or at least that's what my mom tells me when I call her on Sunday mornings...
But seriously, a month into your first semester in a new place you aren't supposed to have it all figured out and this is something I have to constantly remind myself. Sure, if you're anything like me, things are a lot different now than they were in high school and you're feeling uncomfortable. You have to keep in mind change is good. Wherever you've ended up this fall, I am a strong believer that everything happens for a reason and you are right where you should be.
You probably left behind a solid group of friends in your hometown (to my friends who are reading this, I love and miss you) and you probably had every inch of the social life there down to a science. But think about how long it took you to get to that point… it didn't happen overnight, and it is not going to happen overnight here. Personally, I spent the first few days of school in irrational fear that I would not make any friends and that I had made a huge mistake in going so far from home- and I know I'm not the only one who went through something like this.
Feel free to argue with me on this one, but I think we would all feel a whole lot less bad about the meager beginnings of our college experiences if social media just didn't exist. Think about it: you have that friend that posts an Instagram of her and her "friends" all dressed up from Thursday to Saturday and you have the friend who's snapchat story is consistently way too many seconds long of him seemingly having the time of his life every single night. I'm sure you're asking why I'm reminding you of how awesome of a time your friends seem to be having in comparison to yourself, but what I'm trying to tell you is that a lot of those posts are a façade.
Hear me out… how many times have you had the worst night ever but taken a good picture beforehand? Or have you not been enjoying yourself but proceeded to upload a story? You might not even admit these things to yourself, but we've all been there- and if you haven't, I'd like to be more like you. Social media is just not an accurate representation of who we are or our lives. We have gotten to a point where it is more important to show people you are enjoying yourself than it is to enjoy yourself... and the pressure to have a good feed, to get followers or likes or just to look cool makes people portray things in a different light than reality. I have so many friends who I thought we seriously thriving at their schools based on their instagrams and snapchats, only to hear through the parent grapevine or a friend of a friend that they're having a tough time.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that nobody has it all figured out in the first month of school- everyone is still adjusting, even the girl with the perfect Instagram feed. New beginnings are hard, but if you trust in the process and give it your effort I can promise good things are to come. I felt the same way, and I didn't want to admit it because I thought I was alone in it but believe me almost everyone goes through it, and it does get better. You'll be thriving soon too. Throw your social apps out the window if they're giving you bad vibes, if nothing else getting rid of them will keep you off your phone and make you more social! I personally couldn't bring myself to delete snapchat, or Instagram(the first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have one)… but I did delete my finsta so! Progress! But seriously, those apps are the worst.
PSA: if you need a friend.. I'm always looking for more(you can almost always find me at night in the pasta line at the Spit or at the cyber lounge doing homework literally begging for someone to help me procrastinate)
