College can be...weird. You have to leave the place you've called home for 18 or so years, go to a totally new environment, and be expected to do nothing but thrive there for the next four years.
As much as I have loved my two and a half years of college thus far, it has been the biggest and most constant change I have experienced in my life. With that being said college can (and will) change you whether you realize it or not and whether you want to accept it or not. It happens.
The main question I have come to ask myself and have slowly been answering semester by semester is "Who am I?"
Believe me, I know that this question is a completely generic and generalized one to ask yourself...but think about the fact that for a lot of young adults, college is truly the first time that they have a little wiggle room to think and make decisions on their own behalf.
You choose what is right.
You choose what is wrong.
Your accomplishments are yours.
Your consequences are yours.
For all of you current college students out there who feel stuck in the mud this semester, make time for yourself. Even though college can be the best years of your life, sometimes it will still suck the life right out of you if you let it - classes can be overwhelming, schedules can seem hectic, and money can get tight - but you can come out of it stronger. Learn from it and move on because your past does not define you or if you are focused on bettering yourself for the future.
Honestly, this is your chance to be the person to aspire to be. Recognize that although this is an important and developmental stage of your life, you don't necessarily have to take every single moment seriously...be courageous to do things and dream dreams that make YOU happy.
Sure, this is definitely easier said than done if you haven't hit this realization yet, so how did I overcome this wall of finding myself?
I read Proverbs 31:25.
"She is clothed with strength and dignity,
and she laughs without fear of the future. "
This verse has literally changed my mental and emotional outlook on my life, and therefore, God has transformed myself in more ways than I could've ever imagined. When you stop worrying about every single thing...unimportant and unrealistic factors such as how you present yourself to others in a thought process where you try to make your life seem like the most flawless and perfect thing to exist...when you put your faith and trust in the God who can see 20,000 years into your future instead of yourself, that is when you will truly be free and thrive. This world has too much weight for you to carry all of that baggage on your own.
Let your worries out and be the person that God has created you to be.
