College will be the best four years of your life. Make sure you have fun, because when you’re older all you’ll want to do is go back. Party, but not too hard. Study, but not too much. Make friends, ones that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Have balance or falling will be hard and painful.

Every incoming freshmen hears words of wisdom from those who have already been through college. Every incoming freshmen has heard,“These will be the best four years of your life.” It’s kind of a lot of pressure.

I know that everyone is just trying to help, or even just make a joke, but coming into college is scary. I’ve never lived in a room with someone else before, I’ve never lived outside of my parent’s home before, I’ve never had to clean my own bathroom before. The scary comes with the good, the anxiety comes with the excitement. It’s a rough transition into college if you aren’t prepared for the feelings that could come with it.

A lot of freshmen are scared, a lot are excited, and a lot are both. It’s a slew of emotions and it’s hard to travel through them all while learning how to balance everything that’s been set in front of you. I want to have fun, I want to do well. How do I do it? How do I socialize and still have good grades?

I am an overthinker, through and through. I will sit back and think and think, until the opportunity I’ve been thinking about has already passed me by. While this habit of overthinking can actually do me good sometimes, by stopping me from doing impulsive things, it’s become a bit of a struggle in my first week of college.

Unlike a lot of freshmen, I came in knowing quite a few people, because I’m on the bowling team. In a way, I had a leg up on everyone who wasn’t on a team, I already had people that I could hang out with on the first night. The first was fun, I hung out with new friends and I didn’t think. My overthinking didn’t really hit until the next day, right in the middle of orientation.

I put a lot of pressure on myself, I constantly want to strive for more, but this with my overthinking, often causes me to go… For lack of better words, a little wonky. And so, in the middle of my orientation, I had a full on anxiety attack and proceed to have them for the rest of the day.

Not my definition of fun or exciting, but it was certainly a learning experience.

I now know what my coping mechanism are, who I can go to when I have a bad day, and that my “nervousness” isn’t just nervousness. I have a lot of options now, a lot of opportunities I did not have in high school, and I am very excited for them. I’m just also anxious, but I’m learning to deal with it, as a lot college students do.

Moving into college with people I don’t know, with a workload that seems like crazy, it was a lot in that moment. It still is in a way, but I’m getting used to it. I’m learning how to deal with it and I can’t say I’m not having fun here. College may be the best four years of my life, but right now I’m focusing on keeping myself balanced between having fun and keeping up with my work.

It’s full of learning experiences here, dealing with anxiety and all the other emotions, it’s preparing me for what could be in the future. And I’m having a pretty good time so far learning it, even though it can be hard.