College, they say, will be the best four years of your life. It’s supposed to be a time for crazy amounts of fun with your best friends at your second home. College is the place for incredible amounts of personal and professional growth, and unforgettable “you-had-to-be-there” stories.

But, for those of us not attending our dream school, college is a little different. We’re constantly searching for reasons and answers as to why we’re not going to the school we want, instead of enjoying our time at the school we’re at. We see all the social media posts of students who can’t get enough of their school, while we’re just looking for any reason at all to be happy at the school we’re at.

So, to those of you who aren’t attending your dream school, this one’s for you.

It sucks, it really does

There will be plenty of days when you sit alone in your dorm room looking out the window at the campus, and just imagining what it must be like to be a student at the school you wanted to attend. You will play scenarios over and over in your head of what you could have done differently to make attending your dream school a reality. You’ll look around and see students laughing and having a great time, and you’ll wish you could laugh like them instead of dwelling on what could have been. You’ll sit in class and wonder what classes are like at your dream school. You’ll attend sporting events and it will feel awkward and out of place to be cheering for this school, instead of the your dream school’s team.

It’s OK to feel the way you do

You’ll face a lot of pressure to talk about how wonderful your school is and how much you love it at family gatherings and such. You’ll feel like you’re putting on such a facade when you respond “School’s going great! I love it here!” when people ask you how you’re doing. You’ll feel so broken knowing deep down that you’d rather be going to school somewhere else, but you can’t let that show. But, through all those crazy hard and draining emotions you’ll feel, just know that it’s OK to feel that way. Just because society and social media cultivate the atmosphere where if you don’t love the school you’re at and college in general, then you're “doing life wrong,” does not mean that it’s true. It’s OK to not feel “at home” at your school or to feel like there’s more out there for you somewhere else.

It’s not the end of the world

Even though it sucks, not going to your dream school isn’t the worst thing in the world. So many people throughout the world don’t get the opportunity to even go to college. While yes, your college situation isn’t ideal, it could always be much worse.

You’re where you are for a reason

This one is a hard one and you will struggle with it for the duration you’re at any school other than your dream school. No matter what happens to you in your life, including attending a particular college, it’s for the greater good. Everything in this world always happens for a reason, and everything falls into place in the end. If it hasn’t fallen into place yet, it’s not the end.

Make friends

At the end of the day, when we look back on our college experience, odds are that we’re not going to remember the homework, the professors, the exams or the classes. The one thing we’ll never forget are the friends we’ve made in college along the way. Don’t miss the opportunity to meet someone new and potentially develop a lifelong friendship just because you’re not going to the school you want.

Participate in clubs and events

As hard as it will be to support your school when you’d much rather be cheering on your dream school, go to events and make the best of them. The four years or so that you spend in college will be gone before you know it. In the blink of an eye, you won’t be going to college events anymore because you’ll have a career that will take up so much of your time. Sooner or later, you won’t be able to sit in the student section. Even though you’re not at your dream school, time waits for no one. You won’t be able to get those experiences back.

You never know

Even though things haven’t worked out the way you’d hoped they would, you never know if you’ll end up falling in love with the school you’re at. The only way to know for sure is to soak up as much of your school as you can. Allow for the possibility of you feeling “at home” at your school. You never know until you try.

Make the most of it

As much as you want to attend your dream school, that’s not a reality for you at the moment. So, for the time being, try to have a good attitude about your circumstance. Yeah, it sucks. But, you can either learn from it and make the most of it, or you can spend your days having a miserable time sulking about it and letting life pass you by.

As hard as it is, try to enjoy the college experience no matter where you’re at. Make friends, go out, study hard and have a great time. You’ll never get these years back.