Here’s what I’ve learned so far through my first two years of college:
Don’t drink the day before an exam (Thank you Dayquil).
Professors aren’t like your high school teachers: They don’t baby you.
The sudden freedom is actually kind of overwhelming - use it well.
And most importantly, I can’t stress this next point enough. I can easily say that this is and will be the most important thing I learn in college. No matter how cliché it sounds...
College is honestly what you make of it.
In high school, interaction with your peers is inevitable. Group projects, sitting in small class sizes, and eating in a lunchroom with hundreds of fellow students gives a medium for social progression; relationships ranging from surface-level “say-hi-in-the-hallway” relationships to the “meeting-your-best-friend-kind” start to form. High school’s slight inclination towards social interaction is the gentle push that most people need in order to stray from their comfort zone.
But in college, no one is pushing you to meet people. If you don’t get out of the comfort zone and reach out, chances are, no one will do the same.
Macroscopically, it’s way more than solely being comfortable with talking to other people; you have to make your time in college count. I truly can’t stress this enough.
Work out, co-op, intern, do something. Instill a passion and make it blossom into an incentive that truly makes your time worthwhile. Find a balance; despite how pessimistically stark this will sound, you and I both know that there will be times where you will fall. We will fall, but know that everyone does. What makes you unique from the others is not the fact that you’ll get up and dust yourself off, but you will learn from that experience and use it.
Ultimately, it’s your choice. But know that the slightest effort, whether it be joining that club or applying online for that internship, could completely change your whole college experience.
