College is amazing. Seriously, everything about it, from the freedom it brings to the new friends, it's one of the best things that most people have experienced. You'll hear from your parents and your grandparents and your older friends and every single person who finds out you'll be at some university in the fall, how it's the "best time of your life."

But the one thing that people don't tell you is that sometimes it's not. Sometimes you have days where you feel lonely and left out. Sometimes you'll just want to be back with your family and your friends from home. Sometimes you'll feel like you are drowning in all your school work. College is hard. It's so hard leaving everything familiar behind and starting over. For the people, who like me, go to a huge school out of state, it is so scary. And it's okay to be scared. It's normal to feel excited and anxious about this new chapter of your life. And it's okay to be at school and have those days where you feel like you don't belong or chose the wrong school. I promise you that you didn't and you're not alone in how you are feeling.

During my first month of school, I was so scared I picked the wrong school. All my friends from home kept saying how they loved their school and were so happy and never wanted to come home. I just wasn't feeling that about my school and it made me so upset. Later in August, I received a letter from a close family friend and it gave me hope. In one part she wrote,

"So the basic wisdom I have is: in college, you will grow up and you will learn to overcome what is thrown in your path, it won't be easy and great all the time, but when you put forth the effort you will get through it and thrive."

That line stuck with me for a long time. For all the tough days during freshman year I would pull out this letter and remind myself that some days it's just hard, but to keep meeting people and to keep working hard on my school work and to just relax. And it worked. I found amazing friends, made my sorority feel like my home away from home and fell in love with everything about my school. I went from a girl who was calling her mom crying once a week about school to a girl who didn't want to come home from the summer.

Give it time. Be patient. Put in an effort. I promise you that college is amazing and it's just one of those days.