It's funny to think that just a few months ago I was attending student orientations and freaking out over all of the classes and deadlines I had to meet. Now, I find myself one week before being officially done with my freshman year of college and I can only think of one thing: Yikes.

But I'm not saying "yikes," for horrible reasons.

I'd like to admit that my freshman year of college was different than I had imagined. I'm a biology major with a concentration in pre-med, so I imagined my freshman year of college as boring and full of studying. I wasn't completely wrong, I did study a lot, but it definitely wasn't boring. I met a lot of new people from many different places and I went out a lot. As someone who is naturally introverted, I poked out of my bubble this year and actually went out more than I ever have in what feels like my entire life.

College classes are definitely harder than any other classes I have taken. I thought AP Calculus was bad in high school, but Chemistry 111 sure made me change my mind. College professors tend to go at their own speed. They don't follow required lesson plans like teachers do in high school. If you miss one day in class, the next day is an entirely new topic.

I'm not going to lie and say that I was a saint and didn't ditch at all. I ditched class. A lot. In high school, I think I only ditched once and I felt so guilty that I called my dad and told him to excuse me from class. So I guess in other words, I had never ditched before. In college, it was super easy for me to ditch my 300+ student biology lecture. I did it repeatedly and do I regret it? Hell yeah. I missed material and activities but there's nothing I can do now. Will I do it again? Probably.

I've got to admit that in high school I was very eager to go to college. I was ready to take the plunge and head out into the "real world," but as soon as I got there I wanted to do a U-turn and pretend I never graduated.

I came into college with an ego bigger than Oprah's, just kidding, but I was very confident coming in. I kept thinking, "college isn't so bad, everyone is just being dramatic." But let me tell you, college is no joke. College consists of tests and projects worth 15% of your grade. I know that the first couple of months were horrifying for me and I kept thinking whether or not college was even worth it.

If you were to ask me now if I believe college was worth going to, I'd say yes. A million times yes. College is one of the most difficult things you will experience, but so far, it's also one of the best. I've met so many amazing people, learned so many things and even got to participate in cool activities. Coming into college, I would have never guessed that we'd have a lizard and a bird as special guests in my biology class. I would have never met the people I now consider my close friends and I would have never learned many of the things I now know about myself.

No matter how hard college may be and how stressful your freshman year is, you'll get through it. The first year of anything is always the hardest and as much as I complain about being in college, I love it.