The finals are over, the bags are packed, and the goodbyes have been said to all of your friends. Leaving from college for the summer is definitely a time filled with mixed emotions. As you head home on the open road, all the memories from a year full of new experiences flood your brain. The things that stick out though, are the lessons learned. Some of those lessons were unfortunately learned the hard way. Some everyone learned, like don't shake a drunk person awake. They have a tendency to throw up all over your favorite button-up. OK, maybe that was just my experience. So once I got all my boxes and bags into my house, I sat down on the couch, and asked some of my fellow collegiate friends home for summer, what are some of their biggest life lessons they learned from freshman year.
1. Friends Come And Go.
This lesson was pretty harsh on me personally, as I joined and then unjoined a fraternity, and got on the bad side of a few lovely females. Some of the closest people to me my first semester of college, didn't even speak to me my second semester. This doesn't even include the close friends from high school that you may never talk to again. Even the high school friends that go to the same college as you may not find time to hang out with you. And you know what, that's OK. Freshman year is about meeting new people everyday, and experiencing life. The ones that stick through the hard and busy times are the ones that you will grow to love and cherish for a lifetime, but that is a part of a whole different life lesson.
2. Life Is All About Experiences.
The world you knew in high school is nothing to the world that just opened up to you via college. Meeting new people, trying new things, and going new places shape who you are, and your freshman year of college is the first time you are able to see what's truly out there to try for a young adult with little experience. College is where memories and experiences happen, and you don't have to look hard to find something new. So go ahead, and try that new food, or go get that tattoo that your mother may cut you off for, it's all about the experience.
3. Make Connections, It's About Who You Know.
I can personally vouch for this one. I got my first job while in college through a connection I made through my short lived fraternity membership. In college, you will have the opportunity to meet so many people highly qualified in every field of study, so take advantage of that. You never know what job you will go for one day, and you may have already met your boss through your college. Even your fellow students may become an asset in the future. So when you go to class, look around and meet people, that guy who's clearly hungover on a Wednesday, may be your next senator.
4. It Never Hurts To Be Early, It Always Hurts To Be Late.
Whether it be an on campus job you're interviewing for, or a class with a strict professor, freshman year is the first time being late cannot be blamed on your parents. Seriously, I tried, it doesn't work. You learn to be punctual or be dying, and under no circumstances do you want to walk into a lecture class late, you will be ridiculed by your professor. So when we come home, and dear old dad is taking his sweet time getting ready to go to the movies, know college is the reason you want to cuss him and leave.
5. You Haven't Passed The Bar Exam, So Don't Judge.
“Nap on a bench anywhere on campus, no one bats an eye. Nap at the park back home, and people assume you're homeless,” Brian Ko, future Nobel Prize winner. Seriously though, nothing in life is black and white, and freshman year is all about tearing that high school mentality down. A college campus is a pretty judgement free zone contrary to media belief. I know a popular, beautiful sorority girl who rode a children’s electric scooter to class. There was multiple times people in Halloween costumes walked around campus February, and no one took a second look. This type of environment teaches us to not judge, and to mind your own business. Everyone has to much to do to worry about someone else, and honestly, do you have room to judge? (No.)
