Going to college is a huge change from the life you’ve known for the past 18 years. You meet new people and begin a new life, particularly if you go far away like I did. You begin a new life and leave the past in the past. It has been such an amazing experience to watch myself grow into a completely new person. Like I said, college is totally different from the life you’ve always known and these are some things I wish I knew before I started my new life.
It’s okay to fail.
Whether it be tests, friendships, promises or going to the gym today. Failure is a part of life and the sooner that you realize that it is human nature to fail the happier you will be. I’m not saying it is totally okay to go and fail your classes but it’s normal to come up short on occasion. You can stay up and study all you want but sometimes the test just isn’t what you thought it would be -- that is okay. One or two tests does not define you as a person. When you come to college you immediately begin to make friends. Some of these people will be your best friend and some of them will not; it’s nothing personal, some people just don’t click. The friends you make in college will be much different than the ones you made in high school. The first real best friend I made was my roommate, which apparently is a rare thing because a lot of people don’t like their roommate, and that’s okay too. My roomie and I did everything together, the definition of a dynamic duo. I also had many other friendships that eventually died out because at the beginning everyone is so eager to make friends, they’ll try with any and every one. In general, always remember just because you fail at something doesn’t make you a failure.
Finals week is a real thing and you better prepare for it.
Finals week seems like it’s just a phrase college kids throw around to sound scary, but finals are so very real and they come so much faster than you thought. I’m pretty sure I moved into my dorm and I blinked and I was living in the library in December. As a sophomore, I have taken hard finals where I didn’t sleep for 5 days because I was studying and I’ve taken finals where I studied two hours before and did fine. Finals are real and you need to start preparing like, now.
Appreciate your dorm.
As a freshman when you first move in you will fall in love with your dorm. You have so many new friends and you just bought a new comforter that is totally adorable and if you didn’t post a picture on Instagram did it even happen? Slowly you start to get annoyed with the rules and your RA and the annoying people down the hall. Yeah, having your own house or apartment is nice, but so is waking up ten minutes before classes start. Also, dining dollars are a wonderful thing, use them when you can and cherish them.
Freshman year is going to be the best year of your life. You make mistakes, you learn, you grow, you have fun. If I could go back and do it all over again I would in a heartbeat.
