Towards the end of my senior year of high school, I was warned of the notorious freshman 15. I was informed that gaining weight the first year of college was a common issue that my fellow classmates had to face. It was something that I was utterly afraid of. My first thought was, "I am going to gain even more weight!" as if I wasn't big enough already. At that time, I was an insecure, confused teenage girl who cared too much about what others thought of her. Not much has changed, EXCEPT now I have realized that there are more important things to worry about than weight gain. After an emotionally, overwhelming freshman year of college, I have acknowledged that college entails an abundant amount of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual stress that outweighs the terrifying freshman 15. Those who have survived freshman year of college can relate to the majority of this article. To those who plan on going to college and are lucky enough to not have reached it yet, now is your time to take some notes and prepare yourselves.

PHYSICAL STRESSORS

Gaining weight has been a small portion of physical stressors I have struggled with this past year. My largest physical stressor was lack of sleep. I didn't realize how valuable sleep was until college. While I was in high school, I got about seven to eight hours of sleep a night. Perfect. During college, I was fortunate enough to get six hours of sleep a night. Most nights I had to stay up late to catch up on homework or to study; Especially, on nights that I worked until eight. I pulled several all-nighters. They used to be enjoyable when you would stay up playing video games or chilling with friends. It isn't as fun when you have a six page paper due the next morning and you only have the introduction typed. Those were the nights I would drink two energy drinks to stay awake and then a large coffee the next morning in order to stay awake for the class. I never appreciated a nap until then. I used to hate taking naps and couldn't do it. Now, I can take up to four hour long naps and enjoy every moment of it. Lack of sleep drains every ounce of energy in your body. I got used to not getting enough sleep but it has definitely taken its toll on me. In my opinion, once you get to college, everyone looks like zombies 90% of the time because they don't get enough sleep. I have permanent bags under my eyes that make me look like some one punched me in the face. My advice for the newcomers is to stock up on energy drinks because you are going to have a lot of late nights. On a more serious note, I advise the procrastinators (guilty) to either be good at procrastinating or to look into a new technique that will help the semester be less stressful.

MENTAL/EMOTIONAL STRESSORS

Throughout the fall and spring semester, I had many thoughts burst through my mind. Worries such as, "Am I going to pass? Will I be successful in life? Will my major be worth anything? Can I afford this?" and so on. I don't know any one who reads this on a personal level, but I have a feeling that I was not alone with these thoughts. For me, they consumed my mind daily. On top of those worries, I struggled juggling around exams, grades, work, time for myself, and time for others. In high school I didn't worry about homework or tests that much. They typically weren't hard and I passed all of my classes. College is a whole other ball game. You actually have to study for the exams. Let's not forget about the never ending amount of essays you have to write. I didn't think that I would have to write papers outside of my English class. I thought wrong. Each class had a paper due at one point or another. There is no avoiding that scenario, so prepare yourselves. There is a constant battle of keeping your sanity while in college.

College was strikingly similar to the Voyage roller coaster at Holiday World. Up and then down. The only difference was that there were more than just two large humps. Freshman year was emotional for me. I say that in a positively, negative way. There were good days and there were bad days. I even had both good and bad weeks. I believe I felt and expressed every emotion possible. I had days that I was super nervous due to a test that I spent the whole night before studying for. Days that I got disappointed because dining hall didn't have good food. I had multiple occasions where I would cry because I felt like I wasn't good enough. I struggled a lot with my boyfriend. He is a year behind me and we had to face the ultimate challenge of distance. Now that we finished the first year, we feel more confident about this coming year. Thankfully, he is now twenty minutes down the road from me and we can hang out whenever we choose to. Anxiety/stress became a close friend of mine. At the end of my freshman year, I endured one of the hardest tribulations I have ever faced; the loss of my half-sister and her mother. That was the worst part about my college experience. I didn't want to go back. I felt angry, depressed, and regretful. At her funeral, I talked about choosing joy. That has been beyond difficult. It hasn't been until recently that I have been reminded of choosing joy. This friendly reminder is why I am furthering my college career this year. I am pushing through these difficult circumstances.

SPIRITUAL STRESSORS

Before I went to college, I had a rough senior year. I stopped going to church for a while because of issues within the youth group. I started to do things that I never planned on doing. I had a rebellious spree that lasted until a few weeks into my first semester of college. I began to pray less, read the Bible less, and I began to put God on the back burner. I pushed everything I believed in to the side so that I could do me without having any regrets or guilt about some of the poor decisions I was making. Campbellsville University has an organization/club called BCM (Baptist Campus Ministries). On Thursday nights, they have something similar to a church service called Oasis. I started going to those services and began to realize that I was struggling in my walk with God. I ignored it for a solid five or six months until I was smacked in the face by conviction. I am blessed to have amazing friends and family who prayed for me and helped me in my faith. At Oasis, they would cry with me and we would talk about some of the things that were tearing me down. Away from Oasis, I worked on making more time for God. Little things like reading a devotional book or reading a few verses a day. One valuable thing I learned during college was the importance of time management. In order to successfully get through the first year, I encourage freshman students to work on managing their time. Make time for everything (there's not a lot of time in this article to fully discuss this lesson). My biggest battle was making time for God. I felt like homework, work, exams, hanging out with friends and my boyfriend came before Him. This year will be different. I hope to grow more spiritually and to put God first.

My faith, although it wasn't the strongest, was what kept me going my freshman year of college. God has pulled me through every good and difficult circumstance. He has provided for me and loved me even when I have failed him. We all have different beliefs, different opinions, and different battles but I encourage you to never give up. I encourage you to remain faithful and hopeful in life. During your freshman year, make the most of it. Live it to the fullest. I encourage you to not worry about the little things. Don't let the freshman 15 scare you. Don't let this article scare you from college. My purpose is to give you my story and to invite you to take whatever you want from it. I hope it somewhat prepares you for the first year and gives you some insight. College is full of life lessons, transformations, and stressful circumstances. Don't let it keep you from enjoying life or moving on in life. Have hope, endurance, and believe in yourself.

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us."

Romans 5:3-5