Freshman year has so many bad connotations. In high school there is the dreaded Freshman Friday, when 9th graders were terrified that they would get shoved in a trash can or locker and would never be able to get out.

In college, the first month of freshman year is a different kind of scary. You aren’t scared that you are going to get shoved in a trashcan or scared that you will fall in the middle of the hallway. You are scared of other things. You are scared that you are going to lose scholarships. You are scared you are going to have no friends in a new city where you know one person: your roommate. You are scared that you won’t be able to handle the pressure or you will get pressured into doing things you do not want to do. This is why freshman year is deemed inherently bad.

But I don’t think it is all that bad. I think that it is a time for people to grow and develop. For people to find themselves. For people to fall down, but learn how to get up and be stronger than ever. Freshman year is where you find you. Freshman year of college is the year you become who you are.

This is one of the first times you are surrounded by so much culture and opportunity. In college you are truly able to fully immerse yourself in eye-opening opportunities. In high school it is like you are in an international airport with no idea what flight you are going on, but in college -- maybe not freshman year -- you figure out what flight you are going to go on but maybe not the definite destination. You are able to join organizations that truly embody who you are. You are able to join a philanthropy fully catered to a cause dear to you. You are able to join a sports team, no matter how bad you are at it. You are able to change your major several times before you figure out what you truly want to do. You are able to try out everything and find out where you truly want to be for the next few years of your life or where you truly don’t want to be for the next few years of your life.

You do things that you don’t even fully understand. You stay up all night finishing a paper and when you are done, you jump into the fountain and go to class the next morning at 8:00 A.M. You spend money on delivery, even though you have a perfectly good dining hall a short walk away. You taste the punch at parties even though all the orientation videos tell you not to. You skip years 19 and 20 and go straight to 21. You spend 24 hours in the MLC on reading day to make sure you ace your finals. All these crazy things that you do help you understand the independence you have and help you become yourself.

Freshman year is all about ups and downs. It is terrifying and there is so much on the line, but you are able to see what the world has to offer. You are able to do crazy, out of this world stuff. You are able to realize who you are and where you are going. Freshman year will change your life. Instead of a mountain you have to conquer; freshmen year is a bike with training wheels. You can still mess up and it's OK because you are a freshman, but you can also practice and learn skills you will use the rest of your life.