Dear incoming freshmen,

Congratulations! You made it through four years of high school and you finally stepped out of your little high school zone and moved onto college! Excited much? Or maybe scared? Probably both, I would say. Trust me, I felt the same just a year ago. And this is coming from someone who moved three times and attended three different high schools in a two-year time frame. By the time I was graduating high school, I felt pretty confident that I could make new friends pretty easily and fit into certain groups, because I have been doing that for the past two years. But nope, even I was scared. What I am trying to say is that it’s totally fine that you are scared! Just make sure you can feel the excitement, too.

I guess most of our fear probably comes from the concept of 'friends'. “Will I be able to make friends? Will I have someone to eat lunch with? What if I look like a loner?” and on and on and on. The thing is, all of you are thinking that. In my opinion, making friends in college is probably easier than making new friends in high school. In high school, you already have a certain group of friends, and it’s pretty hard to break out of that zone and reach out to someone. But in college, no one knows each other. So, you start from scratch and just reach out to people. You might become best friends with one of them, or you might realize that you don’t actually go along with that someone. But in the end, you will be with your group of friends soon enough. Some of you might have made friends already (you extroverts), or some of you might have not. And it’s totally fine. You have an entire year. You will definitely make more friends, and eventually you are going to look back and say “hey, that wasn’t bad at all.”

Okay, so you’ve made some friends, you know your campus pretty well now, and know some jargon too. But, you don’t feel like you are at home yet. Again, that’s okay. There is that transitioning period that you will go through. Most of us don’t feel like we belong at our college instantaneously, even though it was your top choice school. It usually takes a month to two months until you actually feel like you belong there. Some people take even longer. Yeah, you will feel depressed in the first few weeks, or even months. I too felt the same. Just give it a time, and the time will take care of it. And then the magic happens. You will feel happier; you will feel like you finally belong; you will feel like you are finally at home.

Lastly, before I end this long letter, I want to make sure that you realize that you are in the right place academically. Some common things that I hear from freshmen is “OMG, I feel so stupid, I don’t belong here.” Okay, no, you got accepted because the admissions people knew you will be a good fit, and will be successful at the institution. Yeah, college is definitely not like high school where you can just start your essay or study for your exam the night before and still manage to get an A. You are in college, and therefore you need to change your study habits. You just have to try harder. So, don’t ever think that you don’t belong at the institution, or that you feel like you are too stupid compared to others. We all tend to be so critical of ourselves. Don’t let that happen to you. You are amazing, and there is a reason why the admission people picked you. The bottom-line is, don’t panic; you will be fine.

So, incoming freshmen, I definitely have way more things to say about your first-year at college, but if I write all of them, this is gonna be too long. I just wrote what I think the most important things that I have felt when I was a freshman. I am just going to end this letter with a short phrase. Be kind and have courage. And your college life will be beautiful (I promise).

Good luck guys!

Hyungyu Lee.