So, you're clicking through all your Snapchat stories on a Friday night and it seems to be the case that all of your high school friends are out on the town... and having a lot more fun than you are. You think to yourself as you crack open your textbook and take a sip of hot cocoa, "This isn't normal, I am supposed to be having fun like that." Welcome to first semester of freshman year.
As my friends at other schools underwent the process of recruitment, I was forced to fend for myself first semester. I was so upset that I didn't have that opportunity until January. To me, it seemed as if everyone else was having a great time and I was the only one struggling socially. But let me tell you friends, I am not the only one. After talking with girls on my floor, I realized that practically everyone was feeling the same way as me. I would have never guessed because on social media their lives looked picture perfect. The truth is that everyone is trying to fake their way through the first semester because it's a really tough time! The portrayals of college that we saw as kids depicted crazy parties, no homework, model-status girls, and boys who mirrored Zac Efron. Once we got to real college, it became clear that this fantasy we had all been waiting for could not be further from the truth. But yet, as the saying goes, we started to "Fake it till we made it."
College is a time of huge adjustments, not only academically, but socially and mentally as well. Coming from an introverted-extrovert, this change sucks. But, the thing that all us first years need to realize is that we have seven more semesters to make this crazy ride an experience of a lifetime. Sure, the workload may be enough to make you want to crawl up into a ball and never face reality, but, in three and a half years, you are going to be on your own in the working world and thanking your English professor for being such a stickler on semicolons and punctuation usage. One day you are going to look back on all the nights you spent warming up Easy Mac's and studying ethics terms and laugh...okay maybe not yet, still a sore subject.
The point is, while this first semester may have been a hard time in many different aspects, it can only get better from here. You made it through the worst. Now it's time to really enjoy your college experience. Embrace the soggy vegetables in the dining hall, the grimy bathrooms, and those general education classes. You only get to be a freshman one time, and believe it or not, these may become the best four years of your life, whether you find your own "Zac Efron" or not.