Ah, freshman year. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. While your first year of college won't be quite like the movies, there's a fair chance it'll be a lot like "The Office."

Right from the start, the very first day is a bit of a train wreck. You're meeting dozens of new people for the first time. They'll be your classmates and teammates and the people whose hair is always stuck to the grimy walls of the communal shower. And they all get to watch your dad sweat through his shirt while trying to lift cinder blocks up the stairs in the August heat. Fun! Prepare for a busy day of awkwardly unpacking in front of your new roommate and trying to think of "Two Truths and a Lie" that make your life sound more exciting than it actually is.

Right after orientation week, though, school starts to get very real. All of a sudden, you're two weeks deep into a political theory class and you have no idea what's going on. This is nothing like your high school classes. Where are all the fun videos and memory tricks??

Instead, you've got classes that are 20 percent participation. So much for sleeping in. You better write down some really smart-sounding one-liners for those "seminar-style" class discussions. And if you didn't do the reading? Yikes.

But besides the academic struggles, you also have to deal with all the challenges of living on your own for the first time. As the year goes by, your laundry is going to get increasingly haphazard. Forget sorting your clothes. Finding a single open, functioning washer to stuff four weeks of whites and colors into will be your accomplishment of the semester. Let's face it: after you run out of "good clothes," your OOTD game goes downhill fast.

You also get the opportunity to experience a whole new form of socializing: frat parties! Sure, some genuinely enjoy "going out." But there's also a fair chance that you will find yourself overwhelmed with the stench of beer and sweat, witnessing a frat bro inexplicably take a piss in the parking lot, thinking:

With all this freedom, you're probably also taking advantage of exploring a new city or town. It's awesome to find a favorite coffee shop, to try new restaurants, to feel like you belong in your new home. Just try not to check your transaction history too much. "Uber Industries" owns you now.

And given that your newfound freedom allows you to avoid sleep, forget to eat vegetables for days on end, and fraternize with other questionable youths, you're gonna get sick. Without parents, being sick at college involves lying in your bed in a panic, alternating between frantically emailing your professors and freaking out over WebMD. You're probably not dying. Yet curled up in a den of used tissues and empty Gatorade bottles, you swear you see your short life flash before your eyes.

You've also gotten quite good at calculating the absolute minimum you have to do in order to survive that 9 a.m. For those sleepless nights when you realize there's no way you'll have the assignment done in time for class, you just have to embrace your inner Ryan Howard.

But when the year finally ends and you're back with your parents for the summer, you'll look back on these memories of freshman year fondly. Those were the days, you'll think, as you eat your morning bowl of cereal at 2 p.m. And you'll be filled with wistful nostalgia -- that is, until sophomore year hits.