Being a freshman again has been hard, but now that my college freshman experience is coming to a close, I can't help but look back on the past 9 months and wonder how they flew by so quickly. I learned so much about myself and others, faced obstacles that I never thought I would, and have had to learn to adapt to this new, scary environment that we call college.
I became independent.
When I first moved in to my dorm, I was too scared to even walk to the dining commons or down to the laundry room alone. If I went anywhere alone, I always had to be on the phone with somebody so I wasn't actually alone. I never realized how heavily I relied on my family and friends during my day to day schedule until they weren't as easily accessible. I still don't necessarily enjoy eating alone, but at least now I know how to do my own laundry without ruining my clothes. I make my own appointments, go to said appointments by myself, and am slowly but surely shimmying my way into adulthood. The independence I have found during my freshman year has been liberating-- I can do things all by myself now and as minuscule as it may seem, I take pride in it.
I lost a few friends.
Moving to college makes it infinitely harder to maintain friendships that once meant the world to you. It's not that these people have lost importance to you or that you no longer care, it's just difficult to keep a relationship when you're hours away from you and your schedules are always conflicting. Losing these friends isn't necessarily bad, it's more of just drifting apart and dealing with that part of life. However, as it's always been said, when one door closes, another opens. Even though I may not be close with the same people I was in high school, I have found an amazing friend group at my college. I don't know what I would do without these people and I trust them with my life-- making friends in college is way, way different than making friends in high school.
I had to learn to manage my time.
In high school, I thought that being an AP/honor student would prepare me for college. I was under the impression that I managed my time wisely and was doing pretty good. Little did I know, managing your time in high school has nothing on learning to manage your time in college. Not having classes on Fridays, having a completely different schedule every day, somehow trying to find time to eat, and deciding if you want to sacrifice a night in the library for an event are all much harder to do in college. I've had to learn to say no and to plan strategically to make sure that I can get everything done that I need to.
I made a lot of mistakes.
We all do, though. Can I actually blame it on being a freshman? Eh, there are a few instances. I can definitely blame walking into the wrong room in the wrong building on the first day of class on being a freshman. Can I blame skipping an 11 AM class because I stayed up watching Netflix all night on being a freshman? Not really.
Time flies.
Now that it's April, I really can't believe that I've been in college for almost an entire school year. Where has the time gone? As hard as freshman year has been and as much as I have complained about it, I'm not quite ready for it to be over. I've hurt and I've loved and I've learned so many things that are due to my freshman experience.
Thank you for everything, freshman year, it won't soon be forgotten.
