At the end of my senior year of high school my English teacher asked us to write a list of advice for those who were about embark on the same "journey" we had just completed. Now that I've finished my first year of college, I couldn't help but think back on that assignment and reflect on the lessons that I've learned since. It seems like so much longer than just a year since I wrote that English assignment, but here are the lessons I've learned in that year that feels like a lifetime.
Don't allow yourself to think this will be as easy as high school.
This is a whole new world, and nothing is the same as it was in high school. You've got to shake off those remnants of senioritis and actually start focusing on your work. Remember you're no longer the top of the school, you are a little fish in a very big pond.
Learn to embrace the small talk, the awkward first meetings and the ice-breakers.
Especially if you're like me and you went to school somewhere where you knew absolutely no one, you pretty much go your whole first week (if not first month) making nothing but first impressions. The thing to remember is that everyone is in the same position as you, and everything is only as awkward as you decide it is.
When you find friends that you feel comfortable with and you can be yourself around, keep them.
Appreciate them. Love them. I cannot imagine this year without the friends that I know consider almost family. Most people are like me and lived with their parents at home before college, and it was a rough transition to going from living with people who had known me my whole life to all of a sudden living with virtual strangers. But you get to know people very quickly when you're spending essentially every waking moment together, and I got lucky and ended up living with and meeting some of the most wonderful people in the world. I wouldn't trade them for anything.
Also find your own time or space.
Friends and roommates are great, but for the sake of your mental health make sure you take some time for yourself. Privacy isn't a thing that really exists when you're living in a residence hall so it's important to either find a time or place that you can just exist in peace.
Being an adult is overrated, but required.
Trying to be a mature responsible adult is the actual worst. The good news is though that when you're a college freshman, you're only really halfway there. Most likely you're living in a residence hall, so you don't need to worry about a rent or mortgage and you probably have some sort of meal plan so you might not even have to really feed yourself, but you still have to maintain some responsibility over your actions and lifestyle. Take time to enjoy what freedom from responsibility you still have, but don't over do it. The government says you're an adult now, so there are real life adult consequences to your actions.
Naps are underrated.
Right before leaving for college I was told by a very wise person, "There are only two times in your life where naps are socially acceptable: pre-school and college. Take advantage of it." There is nothing better than knowing that you can take a 20-minute power nap after a particularly rough class. Naps. Take them.
It's OK not to be perfect.
You are going to make a lot of mistakes. You are going to make a lot of mistakes. Do I need to say it a third time? You are going to make a lot of mistakes. There. Try not to be to hard on yourself as you try to figure out how life works.
Questioning your future, having no idea what you want your future to be and being absolutely terrified at even the concept of a future are all perfectly normal things.
It is terrifying to me that my first year of college is already over. I have only a few more years and then I'm out in the world on my own. I have absolutely no clue what life is going to be like for me when that time rolls around. While I spent the better part of my first semester stressing out about this, I've come to realize that most other people don't have a clue what the future holds either.
There is no right way to do college.
You probably get a lot of advice and whether it's from this article, well-meaning family members or other friends, there is one important thing to remember: there is no right way to do college. All I can ever tell you is the lessons I've learned, and all anyone can ever tell you is what worked for them. You get to decide what works for you, whatever that is as long as you're happy, then that's the right way to do it.
