As a high school senior, I was beyond overzealous to get started with my college career; I wanted to get into a new environment, meet different people, be exposed to perspectives that would shake the foundations of my thoughts and opinions, and experience firsthand what my siblings had been talking about for the preceding few years. Looking back at the person I was, I am shocked at how much of me has changed-- my exterior is similar, but my inner workings are beyond different. If high school me had been told that in a few years I would be thinking, acting, learning, and living as I am now, I would have been pretty darn skeptical.
I don't know what I was expecting, but I can certainly tell you what I wasn't. From me to you, you being an incoming first-year student who has somehow stumbled upon this post or someone who knows me personally, here is the list of just a few of the unexpected things I wish someone had told me before I embarked on my undergraduate journey:
1.) It's not all unicorns farting rainbows and butterflies exchanging compliments, but it will make you stronger, eventually. Trust the process!
For me, undergraduate study has been an experience that can only be described as the most tremendous, wonderful, terrible, tumultuous, life-altering, fantastic, brilliant, painful, uplifting years of my life (and I still have one more academic year left!). It has taught be that progress is by no means linear, but the process of progression must be trusted. I have been at my happiest and most peaceful, but also have been in some of my darkest times; I would not have it any other way.
2.) People are going to see you at your shabbiest, and I mean physically shabby, psychologically shabby, academically shabby.... any kind of disheveled or 'off-your-game' you can think of, someone will see you that way. Embrace this.
The first couple of months of your first year, most people on the hall will put the most effort they ever have into their appearances... This will stop soon enough when other things start to tip. This is the first time many young adults experience so much free time with so much freedom. It's also the first time many honors students find they need to really study. No one adjusts perfectly- Learn to accept your accidents and your 'shortcomings' or 'failures' because if you were without faults, you'd be some despicable photoshopped, spell-checked robot who didn't need to go to college. Gretchen Wieners is a fictional high schooler, she knows not what she says.
3.) Your convictions and passions will be tested- stay the course. If you stay true to what you believe is best for you, be that in social or academic choices, things will work out.
You might switch majors. You might discover new hobbies and discover old ones. Your social group may fluctuate. Whatever the changes may be, because there will be changes, do what you feel is right and never be afraid to ask for help, because...
4.) It's okay to ask for help, and you're going to need to do so at least once.
Enough said- you will need to buckle down sometimes, but that doesn't mean you have to fight through everything. You will need support, and you can find it in the most surprising places. Talk to professors, family members, friends, work associates, anyone you can think of.
5.) Every year, you're going to find yourself saying more and more of those, "When I was your age..." statements that you dislike hearing from others so much.
And so the transformation begins.....
6.) You are where you are in life because you have been placed in a position where your work has payed off, and you are joining a community of others who share your position. Try not to judge others without knowledge of their context, and do not compromise who you are in fear of judgement.
We're not all special snowflakes, but that doesn't mean we aren't people of value. We are lucky enough to be granted the opportunities we see before us because of some odd combination of privilege and hard work (and fate, if you believe in that). You are where you are for a reason, do not compromise that task by altering yourself.
Good luck!! The past three years have swept past me, as I'm sure they have done for all those around me, and so many experiences hit me way before I thought they would... And because of that, I have been changed for good. Here's to many more, for me, and for all of us.
