When I applied to a secular college, especially from a Christian home, I did not know what to expect. I constantly heard remarks that I would become a party girl, leave college as an alcoholic, renounce my faith, and pretty much compromise the “good girl” that I was.

Many, if not most of the freshmen around me actually did start going to parties and drinking on weekends. Some even failed out of college because their partying got in the way of their studies. People seemed to think it was inevitable that I would follow that trend. However, what they never told me about college was how people could change for the better.

For most students, college is the first extended period of time they spend away from their families, which makes them more subject to temptation because no one is stopping them from doing what they want. They get to choose what they do and who they hang out with without their parents’ influence. So of course, they are going to change a little bit, but broadening horizons has never hurt anyone.

Through your choices and experiences as a student, you learn more about yourself and the world around you, and you can even improve yourself as a person by using that knowledge. I know I sure have. During my first semester, I realized that I love hanging out and connecting with people. My passion for helping people led me to declare a major in Psychology (I was undecided before that.)

College is also a testing ground. It tests your focus, abilities, beliefs, character, and strength. Whether you pass or fail these “tests” is completely up to you. By “pass” or “fail”, I do not mean whether you make a mistake or not. Everybody makes mistakes; that’s a given. The true test lies in what you do with your mistakes. Will you hold on to them? Refuse to admit you made one? Do what you can to fix it? That choice is yours.

The only way you fail is if you stop trying. I’ve seen too many people fail, in that sense of the word, because they stop trying to hold on to their beliefs, stop trying to question things, stop trying to understand other perspectives, stop trying to care about people other than themselves…the list could go on.

However, the fact that college tests who you are makes you that much stronger when you resist the urge to settle for mediocrity, and instead, work on progress. People who remain true to themselves while keeping an open mind and only change for the better are the ones who will go far in life.