College. College, college, college, COLLEGE.
During eighteen years of your life, you prepare for what you plan to do post-high-school graduation. And for some, college is the option. As college is a great experience and opportunity for some, I noticed there is this self-pressure to "change" once you enter college.
College is assumed to help "mature" and "change" people whether they live on the campus or not. But, the definition of "change" seriously is so open and means something different to everyone.
Let's just begin with the "I just graduated high-school, let me chop 10 inches off my hair." I cannot even bash this completely because I was one of those people who did this. Do others and myself just want to look different in this new school? Do we actually think that cutting our gorgeous hair off will change us as a person? That's bullsh*t.
It won't change you. You may look slightly different, but you're still the same "goody-two-shoes" or the same "b*tch" you were last week.
Another serious pressure that both males and females experience upon their first semester of college is gaining weight or losing weight. YES, MOM. We get it. "Freshman 15" is a thing.
If I hear that phrase once more I might explode. If you're not gaining weight, you're losing it. If you're not losing weight, you're gaining it. There really is no in between. People will talk about your weight while you enter college because they're looking for it. They're looking to see if college is making people change. Why? I still don't know.
Have you ever noticed the Instagram aesthetic of a college girl? I have noticed that some girls (truthfully most but I realize I can't speak for everyone) try so hard to make themselves "Glo-Up" based on their pre-summer appearance. Why are we trying SO hard to look different?
Yes, I say we because I have, and will admit to, falling into this trap myself. This pressure of drastically changing in college is because of the stereotypes that are made that "we all change once we enter college."
We go to our hometown, and want everyone to see a difference in ourselves. We want to show off our "physical" or "mental" change. But, why? What if no one drastically changed? They'd have nothing to talk about.
Stop trying so hard to change yourself. True, non-superficial change should come naturally, and will once you stop over-thinking it.