I grew up in a small town, and by small, I mean itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie. Upon arriving at Miami University, I would hear some of my classmates talk about coming from "small" suburbs outside of Dayton or Cincinnati, but those suburbs are huge compared to my hometown of Winchester, Ohio.
My graduating class had less than 100 students. I knew everyone's name, and I knew almost everyone's siblings or parents. We were a very close-knit community.
When I first moved onto Miami's campus, I was super excited. I was so ready to meet everyone and jump right into classes. But I was shocked by a few things.
You will no longer be the best at what you do.
Every high schooler has something they love doing and therefore excel in. It may be writing, a sport, math, public speaking or really anything at all. But in college, you are surrounded by students just like you who excelled in those areas in high school, too. The simple fact is, no matter what you are doing, someone else is always going to be better.
This is especially true of athletes who are recruited to play a sport at their college or university. While in high school, these athletes were constantly the best at their sport. But in college, they are surrounded by other athletes at the same skill level. With this constant competition, some of these players may not get the praise that they are used to hearing, causing a decline in self-confidence.
You cannot meet and become friends with everyone on campus.
It's easy to be extremely social in high school, meeting everybody and considering most of them as your friends. However, in college, you have to accept the fact that the majority of people you pass on campus will remain unnamed strangers. It is simply impossible for a freshman to meet everyone.
It is surprisingly hard to make friends.
In small towns, everyone is connected in a big web of people. Because everyone knows someone who is related to someone who used to date someone's sister and so on and so on. It gets complicated, but you make connections. This makes it a whole lot simpler to be introduced to new people and become good friends quickly.
In college, it becomes a necessity to be able to walk up to a complete stranger and introduce yourself. You will be living with a stranger, eating dinner with strangers and brushing your teeth at the sink next to strangers. Scary, yes, but not impossible by any means. Not to fret, some of these once-strangers will become your best friends within a couple days.
College is a culture shock if you are not used to heavily populated hallways, walking from building to building to get to class or sitting in 100-person lecture halls. But if you remember to be friendly and work your hardest at all times, you will thrive. Don't let those small town roots be an excuse or a setback. You got this.
