I’m my own individual.

Honestly, I didn’t even know I had an independent side until I got through my first semester at college. Nobody was there teaching me how to make friends; I did that on my own. Nobody was there motivating me to study and do my work; I did that. And most importantly, nobody was there to hold my hand every step of the way; I was my own support system (with the help of my friends, of course). I found out that doing it all on my own and taking charge of my own education helped me find my independence. I decided what I wanted out of my academic career. I decided that I wanted to make the most out of my education and that I wanted to learn. Because of that, I have learned what it means to be my own individual, and that has made me a better person.

It has forced me to work harder.

As I’m sure everyone knows, college is a lot of hard work. There’s no room to slack off in college, at least not if you want to do well. Writing two to three papers a week has become pretty much second nature to me and I know I have had to work harder to be able to do that. I’ve also had to accept that going to bed at 10:30 is not a realistic thing in college, because of your workload. I mean, I guess unless you’re insanely good at managing your time, which I am still working on. I’ve had to form good study habits, and accept that most my time would be devoted to my school work.

I’ve had to step outside of my comfort zone.

Upon coming to college, I felt a bit unsure of how things would go for me. I’ve never really had to work too hard at making friends because I came from a high school where pretty much everyone knew each other, and I had friends that I’d been friends with since a young age. Making friends in college was pretty much all new to me, but it forced me to come out of my shell. I started talking to people and putting myself out there more and I ended up cultivating lots of great relationships.