Freshman year of college is stock full of new people, places, and the standards of your way of living are now flipped over, reversed, and changed for the better and for the worst. It’s an experience that you will never get anywhere else because you’re now in an environment where you are in charge of your life. There is no one else to tell you “yes, or no” — it’s all on you and it’s terrifying. There are a plethora of movies where the protagonist starts their new life at college; it’s overwhelming for the first 10 minutes and then they move on to find their “place,” with no other problems in the world. What the movies don’t tell you, is the stress of the papers, the addiction to procrastination, and that budgeting money is really, really hard.

Move-in day was hectic as it could get — parents fussing everywhere, the elevators having 15-20 minute waits to get up to top floors and the nerves of meeting your roommates for the first time. What I did not expect was how high energy and nice everyone was. I was so nervous that I was actually at college, that I forgot that everyone was in the same exact boat as me. One of my favorite memories was as I was setting up my room with my mom and my roommate, my neighbor's (Jeff) dad started talking to me. He was a tall middle-aged man from New Jersey. He gave off the energy of a practical Dad who couldn’t have been more excited and proud of his son. He said “Now my son is shy, you going to keep him in shape, right?” Weird enough, that set the tone for how my first few days was going to be at college. We’re all going to be either extremely open and excited to dive head first into new things, or we’re going to be scared sh*tless and sometimes we’re going to need that little push to get what we want to get done, done.

Now we’re a month into school and college is starting to take a turn to where I absolutely did not expect. Prior to AU, all my life for that matter, I have been a dancer. Dance was my source of exercise and I did not realize how much I was going to miss just being able to have that freedom of expression. And I did not realize that I was going to miss exercising? This weirded me out, why would anyone miss exercising? Perhaps it was because being fit made me feel like I had a schedule, and I was keeping my body healthy. In contrast, I got to class, sleep, do homework and repeat the cycle (and no, it’s not out of order, I sleep and then do homework).

Furthermore, let’s talk about the homework habits that I assumed I would have going into college, in comparison to what I actually have now. The summer going into my freshman year, I was ecstatic when it came to my fall semester schedule. I had only three classes on Mondays, with a four-hour break, and then on Tuesdays, oh, Tuesdays were a blessing. Tuesdays I woke up with knowing that I only had two classes, the second one ending at 2:10 p.m. This all seemed great to a girl who previously came from a school that had an A-H block schedule rotation with eight classes. College was heaven. With such a relaxed schedule, with two to four-hour breaks in between my classes, I assumed that I was going to be productive with my time. I was terribly wrong, because in college friends are disposable in a second, or you make petty excuses for doing something other than work. For an example, didn’t have dinner last night? Better go get food to make up for lost meals, or the best and most common activity to fill up your time: sleep. I sleep when I am sleep deprived, I sleep when class is exhausting, or I sleep because sometimes, a girl just needs a nap. And it has become quite the problem. With such an unhealthy procrastination schedule, along with trying to fit in so many subjects — I get overwhelmed and end up cramming.

Finally, one of the most anticipated and encouraged cultures in college: parties. It’s safe to say that everyone, including me, was itching to just go to a party. I live by the rule of “you do you,” so if one my friends wasn’t up to it, I’m not going to blame them. But for me, and for my expectations for college — it would be weird to not go to at least one party. The parties have been fun don’t get me wrong — I assumed that the party scene was going to be an out-of-body experience, and I was going to have the best time of my life at every party I went to. In reality, it was a sweaty mess, and I realized that the fun wasn’t going to just appear by being there, I had to make the fun myself. Whether its dancing with my girls, singing (screaming) on the top of my lungs with my friends, or just having a simple conversation with someone from my writing class; the bottom line is you can’t expect to have fun just because you’re at a party. This may seem like common sense to more “party experienced” kids, but for someone who is new to the scene and watched way too many movies of “the freshman experience” being entirely depending on parties. Making this realization made my life a lot better because there are so many more alternatives to parties where you can have just as much, if not more fun.

Freshman year is a whirl wind of activities, emotions, and just general craziness. Not every day is going to be exciting, and most aren’t. The regular day is stressing about an upcoming paper or test, considering if a meal is worth actually paying for, and counting down the days until you can hug and sleep with your pet back home. However, there are the moments where you’re happy that you’ve made it this far. There are the moments when you get a good grade back, you’re laughing with your friends, or you’re enjoying life doing what you love. I can’t wait to see what the next four years have in store.