I just finished up my first year as a freshman in college a couple weeks ago. It is extremely bizarre to say that. I can’t even tell you how I survived it, in all honesty. But me surviving my freshman year of college is not what I’m going to talk to you about. I am here to talk to all of the newly graduated high school students about all of the wisdom I have developed during this first year of college. You guys need it!
I have seen all of your posts about graduating on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook … pretty much every single social media base possible. Been there, done that. I have seen the posts about you all saying how we are all never going to see each other ever again. Let me tell you guys how true and false that statement is. You are going to see the people you love again, but odds are you are also going to see the people you hate again. When I mean love, I mean the people who actually stuck by your side in high school. When I mean hate, I literally mean the people you would see walking down the hallway and cringe. Yes, you will probably never see everyone you graduated with again, but you will see the people who mattered the most … and the people who you truly couldn't care less about.
College is hard. College is not even close to high school academics. Remember those classes that you literally did not have to study for and get an A on easily? The tests/quizzes you take in college that you do not study for will usually come with with only one outcome: F. This will cause a lot of tears and pain, but you will learn your lesson. But, after you put in so much time and effort, you will break out into a happy dance because you received an A in that one class that you thought would be completely impossible to succeed in. Those are the moments college students live for.
You will have mental breakdowns. I don’t know how many times you are going to say that during your first year. You are going to have so many mental breakdowns within the first week, and you are going to think it is the end. Trust me, it isn’t. It’s going to get harder. Those times that you posted on Twitter saying, “I can’t wait to get out of high school” are going to be slowly regrettable because you wish that your work load was exactly like high school. But then you will get to the realization that maybe, just maybe, you need this push to achieve success.
You are going to have the time of your life. You are going to meet amazing people that you will spend the rest of your life with. You are also going to meet people that you are going to despise, but that’s real life. You are going to make memories, and you are also going to have some regrets along the way (but mostly good memories). You don’t need to go to a party every weekend to make your college years count. Sometimes a good group of friends and Netflix are just as good.
Remember how fast those last four years of high school went? That is probably going to be the same for college as well. Enjoy it!
