The transition to college can be rough. It's a difficult concept for a lot of us to fathom. The media we consume and those around us hype up university life for as long we've known it existed. You're meant to meet the most amazing, strange, wonderful people you're ever going to find. You're supposed to have the strangest, most interesting experiences because of your newfound independence. Going to college is supposed to be the best time in your life.
It doesn't always turn out that way. To be fair, we're not the only ones who cultivate those expectations, but, regardless, when reality doesn't match up, we're dissatisfied. When you inevitably don't meet your new best friend who gets you on every level, and you don't go to the best, wildest parties every weekend, there's a difficulty to resign your vision of what "should have been" to what is.
There are ways to alleviate this dejection. The most obvious would be to lower your expectations. When you don't go in expecting too much, you won't be let down by what you find. However, this is a depressing solution. A far better fix, then, in my opinion, would be to try and focus on the things that you're thankful for within the process.
Even when your expectations aren't met, your roommate hates you, and you don't understand what's going on in any of your classes, there is something good happening. You just need to isolate it within the rest of the murk. Maybe the weather's nice, or you found a good place to study. Maybe you like the food your eating. Maybe you've found an hour or two to watch that new Netflix movie without feeling bad about yourself.
There's beauty in the independence that you're faced with right now. You can make an adventure for yourself, taking some time to explore your campus and be spontaneous, and no one can stop you. Your school likely has random programming constantly going on, and if everything feels like too much, there are most likely confidential resources for you to let your fears and anxieties out onto those most qualified to deal with them. There's also no shame in calling home.
Regardless of where you go and what you do, you need to remember that a whole bunch of things had to happen for you to be able to be where you are today. Maybe everything doesn't fit a conventional view of "the best time in your life," but that doesn't mean that the world is gray and everything will be terrible forever.
You're in transition right now. You should try and enjoy that feeling of uncertainty because it's not often you get to carve out something new for yourself. You be and do whatever you want (within reason). It's not just that there's something good on the horizon. There's something good you're not looking at right now.
It's easy to fixate on why nothing is working out, but, honestly, aggressive positivity is far more fun. Be thankful, be gracious, and things might feel a little lighter.
