For me I have been out of undergraduate school for three years and the nostalgic feelings around the end of August still kick in. I am currently in a master's program and it does not compare to the experiences I had as an undergraduate for four years. I see posts and stories about kids getting ready to go to college and I truly wish I could rewind my back and do my four years of college again because they were truly the best years of my life.
Starting your first year of college is nerve wrecking no doubt. You are going to want to go home during the first few weeks. You are going to get lost. You will be treated as dumb freshman. You won't know which professors to choose cause you are new. You may get a bad roomie or an awesome roomie. You may party too much and flunk first semester or you may be a studios student. You may experience your first party or alcoholic beverage.
You may join a frat or sorority. You may start a club or volunteer on campus. You may even work on campus. You may buy the most expensive textbooks and then try to sell them only making less than half of what you bought them for. You may bring way too much stuff to college. You may forget to pack clothes for the winter. You may take amtrak to visit home for the holidays. You may totally stand up to a professor if you feel they graded you wrong. You may cheat on an exam or be the good student and tutor others. You may stay a fifth year because you changed your major. You may have no fricken idea what you want to study. You may take a major that is totally bogus.
You will push and shove to make it onto the bus to go to a downtown campus. You will see students puking in public. You may also help a student in need when they drink too much. Your roomie may be a total mess and you just want to cry. Better yet, you may cry from a super hard class and complain about that professor who everyone hates. You will strive to get an A on every test which sometimes just won't happen. You will call your parents crying saying that you want to drop out.
Your hall mates will play really loud music and quite hours may not be so quite. You will eat some pretty bad campus food but will also eat late night pizza and Chinese. You will go to some cool events on campus with awesome barbecues and giveaways. You will attend a campus concert maybe featuring Chris Brown or J Cole. You will see some of the funniest posts on the college community page on Facebook but also see some really messed up stuff that you should probably report.
You will get hit on if your a girl, asked straight up if you want to have sex, and unfortunately are prone to the extreme dangers that men can cause for females so PLEASE be careful. Guys, you will be seen as creepy by many girls but don't worry, you'll be able to have your occasional hookups for females actually interested. Ladies, you will get a random late night booty call from a random on Facebook. Men, you will get led on by girls.
You will fight with a roomie or she will become your best friend. They may steal your stuff or buy you gifts just because. You will attend boring resident hall meetings getting to know your suite mates and hall mates which may seem pointless but are actually super important. You will see brown lettuce in the cafeteria but will also get some good ice cream once in a blue moon.
You card for you to get into buildings will get lost. You will go to the local mall a lot just for boredom. You will try and become friends with your resident hall leader so you can illegally drink without getting in trouble. You will also cry to them when you need it.
Your parents will visit you for your first homecoming and it will be one of the best times of your life in college. You'll see a campus play for a class that you really do not want to go to but you actually end up enjoying it. You may keep in touch with professors throughout your college years and even try to retake them again. Some you will never want to have contact with again.
You'll start wearing your school colors because you really start to enjoy the school and the cute items they sell. You friends will come visit and you will all get hammered together. Ubering and taking a taxi downtown will be used since you can't get on a bus. You will even stay in on some nights to relax or have a depressed day because you are missing home.
Then before you know it, your at graduation getting your degree which many say is useless but the experiences were worth it. You will never have a experience like you did at college. So whatever bad and good things happen, make it count and enjoy them - you'll miss it when it's over.