I wasn't sure what to expect from my freshman year of college, especially because I was coming from so far away, didn't know a single soul, and was moving to Indiana, a place where I couldn't even point out on a map before deciding to come to Purdue. I remember going through different stages; I was excited, nervous, and had a full mental breakdown sitting in an Outback Steakhouse with my parents just as they were finally about to leave me to say goodbye. To say I was a little unsure about my decision to move so far away would be an understatement, but it has been one of the most unforgettable years of my life and in the best ways possible.
Since I came to a school where I knew nobody, the obvious decision was to rush a sorority, even though I didn't know a single thing about Greek life. During the whole process I was worried that I wasn't making the right decision, and that this wasn't for me. Little did I know that the same exact sentence comes out of 95% of sorority girls' mouths, and as corny as it may sound, all of the fear and doubt I'd had about coming to college subsided. I finally felt, for the first time, that I had made the right decision. I met some of the girls which I can call my best friends, and a place that I could call home here at Purdue.
As most freshmen in college can tell you, the social aspect of your freshman year really isn't the difficult part, even though I thought it might be. The difficult part was trying to balance my social life with my academic life. Anyone who says that their high school has successfully prepared you for college is either a liar, or a child prodigy. My first semester of college academically was a disaster. I tried to avoid it and hide from it, but what you learn pretty quickly during the 3 week break you have in the winter, is that you don't have much time to get it together for the spring semester. So buck up, turn it around, and stop sucking. And that's exactly what I had to tell myself in order to turn it around. There are a lot of differences between high school and college, but the one that really kicks you in the butt is the one that's most obvious: nobody is going to tell you what to do, when to do it, or how to do it. That's on you and that's the rude awakening us college freshmen get when we don't have our parents keeping an eye on us.
Looking back on it now, I remember the day. I moved in like it was yesterday. I was terrified, and for the first time in a long time I had no idea how this new chapter in my life would turn out. That's a lot of pressure on a 19-year-old. The winter might be brutal, the community bathrooms in dorm rooms might give you nightmares, the schoolwork might make you feel defeated, and the campus might have this awkwardly gross smell when it starts to get warm again, but the friends I've made, the experiences I've had, the places I've seen, and the things I've learned are unforgettable and have made for a lot of interesting stories and a lot of obnoxious laughs.
