To The Girl Who’ll Live in My Freshman Year Dorm Room Next:

First and foremost, welcome to college! And welcome to your freshman year dorm room! Right now as you are moving in, putting your stuff away, and decorating your side of the room, you are experiencing a bunch of emotions—sadness, excitement, fear, nervousness, confusion, and so on. And don’t be embarrassed if you cry when you and your family are saying goodbye.

For the next year this room will be your home. That word seems weird doesn’t it? Home. I know what you are probably thinking, why would I ever call this tiny little room a home? I know it seems strange, but, trust me, this room will eventually become a home to you.

This is the place where you will make your first college memories. This is the place where you will come back to at the end of every day. This is the place where you’ll cry, you’ll be sick, you’ll study, you’ll make your first friends, you’ll be stressed, you’ll get ready to go out, and, most of all, where you learn to love college.

The first semester may seem long and confusing to you. The first few weeks you will be trying to figure out where all the buildings on campus are located along with your classes, the difference between dragon dollars and declining dollars, figuring out the bus system, and trying to make friends in the process. Don’t worry though, you will get through it.

And after a long four months of adjusting to college life and experiencing your first round of college finals (good luck, by the way), you’ll be excited to go home for a whole month. But once you come back for the next semester, you realize how much you really did miss college.

The second semester will be better. You’ll already know what to expect. You will have established your friend group and always meeting new people along the way, which you will find is one of the absolute best things about college. Maybe you will have joined a club or found something that you love to do.

My advice to you is to take advantage of absolutely every single opportunity that you face. You won’t regret it whatsoever. College is full of new things and you will come across them each and every day, which is another one of the best things about college. Remember to study and work hard in your classes, too.

Then, once you are finally finished your second round of college finals, you realize that you have to pack up all your stuff to move out. You were sad when you came to college and now you are sad that you have to leave. It is then when you realize, that this tiny little dorm room that you were initially disgusted with has become your home.

So, welcome home!

Sincerely yours,

The Girl That Lived Here Last

p.s. Let me know if you ever find my ear buds.