The transition from high school senior to college freshman can be intimidating, whether you’re from a small town or a big city. However, it generally works itself out. Here are just a few things to expect to learn from your freshman year in college.
1. Roommates can be...interesting
My roommates were nice. Initially, we got along very well. Classes started and things suddenly got a bit messy, literally. By the end of our first fall semester, we were virtual strangers merely sharing a common space. Personally, I was the only one of the four of us to work and go to school, therefore, money was tight. I learned quickly to label my food, even going so far as to hide it sometimes. Sometimes, you will walk in and the sink will suddenly be full of dishes that you know weren’t there this morning before you went to class. Take a deep breath, it’ll all be OK. Even if they won’t take out the trash. Know that, at the end of the year, if you don’t get along with your roommates, you won’t have to interact with them. That brings me to my second point, which is...
2. You don’t have to be friends with everyone.
That’s right! Coming from a small school with graduating classes that never surpassed 100 students, I knew everyone. I grew up with almost all of them. So, even when I didn’t necessarily like someone, it was always important to make acquaintance with them because they were the people you would always be surrounded by. In college, that isn’t the case! You’ll meet hundreds - maybe even thousands on some campuses - of people every semester. Some you’ll form life-long relationships with, while others you may avoid at all cost. The beauty of being in college is you only have to surround yourself with people that you like.
3. It’s OK to not know what you want to do with your life.
From a young age, I felt the unspoken pressure of my future endeavors. What would I be when I “grew up”? The thing is, coming from a small town, I didn’t really know what the world had to offer. Even with the Internet, I had no idea just how much there was out there to explore. So, I decided to major in English. Before the semester started, I changed my major to psychology, so that maybe I could counsel LGBTQA youth some day. I quickly changed that after absolutely hating my introductory class. I switched to the next best thing that would allow me to work with people: Sociology! The point is you don’t have to declare a major immediately. Most colleges require what are called General Education Requirements, which are universal for incoming freshman, so you usually have one to three semesters to explore and really discover what you’re comfortable with.
Clearly, there are way more things you’ll learn in your freshman year of college. Procrastination is brutal, but you just might continue to do it anyway. When a professor says you get credit for attendance, go to class no matter how much more comfortable you are in bed as opposed to the stiff chair-desks that your university has to offer. The point is, college is what you make of it; we’re all still learning. All you can do is take it a day at a time.
