How does it feel to hit submit on that blackboard assignment? Is it wonderful? How did it feel to walk out of that stuffy exam room full of tears of sadness and accomplishment? You felt like you won the lottery — the lottery of life.
College is definitely not what I thought it was. It's hard, it’s really hard. I did not expect to have several mental breakdowns, an existential crisis, and to have days where I make pancakes three times a day because I was too lazy to leave the dorm, too broke to go out to the real world to get real food, or sad that this was the only “real food” I could handmake.
You got to give yourself a pat on the back, though, because you accomplished something that a lot of people cannot do themselves and are going through the same things as you. In your first semester of college, you are realizing that adulting isn’t always that easy. Balancing and budgeting money, yeah, it’s much more than “what do I want and what do I need?”. Then there is being on a right sleeping schedule. It’s true that sleeping is important, and naps can be OK, but maybe staying up until 3 a.m. and then napping for three hours in the day isn’t always the healthiest thing to do.
Looking back at all the wild and fun times with your new friends and family make the pain and the tears worth it. You found friends that aspire to the same goals as you and will support you through thick and thin. Yeah, you had friends since pre-K who fit that role too, but college is as if you live a double life. Personally, I feel as though as I made friends who I was destined to be with. Meeting my best friend (Sarah Schwartz, calling you out girl), has changed my life for so many different reasons. We realize that we were both the friends of the friend group who was walked on sometimes, and we did not want to re-live that high school bullsh*t experience again. We boosted each other’s confidence and took pride in taking charge of our lives.
All in all, in this first semester no one could escape the sudden high expectations of what professors are really looking for. Did that stop us from bullshitt*ng assignments, get friends to tell you what was on the exam, and looking for extra help whenever possible? No. The stress from papers, tests, projects, is finally lifted from our shoulders. We don’t have to think anything school related for another month, other than the question “when can I see my friends again?!”
So I raise a glass to you, fellow freshmen, we survived our first semester a college. Now let us hopefully get on better sleeping schedules, binge Netflix for a month, and survive the holidays with the constant question of “How was your first semester of college?
