You’re so excited to start your freshman year. So excited to escape the dramatics of high school especially after the overwhelmingly stressful and, if we are being fair, obscene college process. You have been low-key stalking older girls who attend your university for weeks. Don't lie, we all do it. You’re independent, or in more modern terms, doing you and finally able to make your own decisions. Warning: However questionable or humiliating these decisions may be.
1. Salt - The Excitement
Remember when your dad said you couldn’t leave the house past 11 p.m. to “grab some ice cream with a friend.” Sorry dad. Remember when your mom said you couldn’t smuggle her Grey Goose into Electric Zoo just because “Mom, seriously, everyone does it.” Well, here I am mom, alive and well. Ready for college, ready to embrace the new and exciting challenges in front of me.
You pick up the salt, lick your hand and spread the salt across it. Why not? You’re in college. That is enough of a legitimate reason.
2. Tequila - The Realization
You hold your breath and take the shot. Jose Cuervo is your closest and most supportive friend. You invited him out with you, he's a shoulder to cry on and he doesn't ask you to take pictures of him in his new black, laced body con dress. Pure bliss.
You find yourself having all the confidence in the world to approach cute Tyler from Spanish class. As he walks by you try to keep it cool but when he attempts to smoothly hug you, you toss him a confused and frazzled… high five?
Nevertheless, it's your night. You are finding yourself on cloud nine, settling into a new place with ease. Homesickness? Literally where am I from again? As you look into the mirror you realize, college looks great on you. You find yourself carefree and happy as you begin to lose sight of senior prom, your checkered kilt and your high school boyfriend.
Similarly to these miraculous realizations and the strong sense of confidence you gain over the course of the night, you also seemed to have, with the help of tequila, misplaced your wallet, phone, dorm key and sense of dignity.
3. Lime - The Brutal Truth
It’s sour. College is hard. It’s scary having to adjust to a completely new place after being so comfortable in the same town and on the same couch in your living room for so many years. Branching out, taking risks, making friends and finding what you’re passionate about takes work. Work, work, work, work, work. Rihanna, where did you go to college because you seem to be the only reasonable one around here.
With work however, comes success, happiness and the most incredible and unforgettable four years of your life.
Life is full of ups and downs, salt, lime and plenty of tequila shots. You will become comfortable and confident at whichever college you have chosen. You will make yourself a second home once you allow yourself to grow and begin to appreciate yourself and those around you for all that they have to offer.
Life goes on and I am sure you’ll find yourself, yet again, despite the shocking taste of pure salt, the cringe-worthy taste of the tequila shot, and the bitterness of the lime, befriending Jose Cuervo and drinking this unspeakably enticing particular alcohol.
