It’s after the fanfare of high school’s senior year is over. The ceremonial graduation cap toss that was something so coveted is now a distant memory. All your friends have been heading off to their universities of choice and now it's your turn.

The collegiate years have just begun.

You’re fresh-faced, you’re ambitious, you’re brimming with the kind of hope and joy that only a human being that has not yet experienced an 8 a.m. Friday lecture could have, and most of all, you’re ready.

Sylly week goes by, what a breeze. A couple weeks into the semester and you’re still feeling good. It’s all a piece of cake. And then they come at you like a woman scorned: midterms.

Wait. But you anticipated this. How did they come up so quick?

At this point, your head is spinning like you’re on one of those roundabouts that they used to have on children’s playgrounds (even playground builders realized that that level of spinning was dangerous). Sure you put the exam dates in your planner but after using it for the first couple weeks, you didn’t totally stick with it.

And just like that, the experience that was once a piece of cake relegates itself to something much less appealing, like a Thanksgiving dinner devoid of spice.

But despite a particularly rude awakening in the middle of your freshman year college experience, it’s not all that bad. In fact, a lot of it’s actually amazing. By my estimate, almost 99% of college has the potential to be amazing and even downright rewarding. You just have to seek those experiences out.

Generally speaking, you want to be well-rounded in college. You should participate in clubs and activities, maybe join some greek life, have a functional social circle, hit the gym a couple times a week, eat healthy meals and yes, all the while maintaining your academia.

Now no one is claiming that doing all of that is easy (unless you are, in which case, who are you and will you please rub off on me). But a basic rule of thumb my mom always used to tell me when I would pick apart her cauliflower curry instead of eating it was, “Either try to enjoy it or you’re just going to be miserable until you finish it!”

Unless you’re using your time and energy for the things you care about, you’re not going to be happy.

So here’s the point when you step back and evaluate. There are a lot of options. You can consider joining activities similar to your high school pursuits. You can explore and join new clubs and interact with communities you possibly never would have met otherwise.

You can even personally start your own group for a cause or activity you’re devoted to if it’s not well established in the Rut. If you can stomach the harrowing attacks of midterms and finals and come out of the other side perhaps a little tousled but otherwise unblemished, then Rutgers is your oyster. There are actually so many ways to get started and involved it's almost a little overwhelming.

Which brings me to my next point.

It is easy to get intimidated by the size of Rutgers. That first time you have to fight and elbow your way onto an LX during peak bus-crowding hours is probably the moment when you start to realize that you are just one person in a school of so many. There’s several hundred students on each campus and several thousand in the university altogether.

Finding your voice amidst all of this is hard and getting discouraged and feeling drowned out is common. But don’t freak out! College is a new world just like high school was back when you were barely a teenager. Finding your niche is the first step to finding your voice, and once you’ve found that, well, welcome home.