Having anxiety growing up was horrible, but once I got to college it heightened to a crazy level. I had my first actual anxiety attack in my junior year of high school, before that I just got anxious over everything. But that first actual attack sent me to the hospital twice and I was numb for a month. Now, just four years later I have anxiety attacks on the reg and way too often. So why is it that college heightens our anxiety?

For starters, this is, for most of us, our first time being away from home. Now we are responsible for feeding ourselves, having a job so we can afford food, and now we can literally do what we want when we want. That pressure alone is scary when it's new, and that first day after our parents leave us at our dorms is exciting, sure, but it's also scary being faced with the unexpected. All of the change in our lives during college causes us to become more anxious.

While you can't tell who does and does not have anxiety by looking at someone, so many of us have it and suffer from it every day. Being in college you want to get involved in as many clubs and associations as you can, but having anxiety can stop you from getting involved. For me having anxiety makes it hard for me to make friends, so while I have friends in my classes it's hard for me to hang out with people outside of class and become closer to people. So while I sit there quiet and observing, I'm so anxious I won't speak, but others view that as me being a bitch. Those people are dead wrong.

Anxiety keeps you from doing so many things, and it makes a lot of things harder. When I first came to college I wanted to rush a sorority, get involved with the film club, and find that group of friends that I would be lifelong friends with. I just finished my fourth semester and none of those things have happened simply because of my anxiety. As people that are going to college and starting to develop the future careers we want to have, getting involved is important and so is not letting our anxiety stop us from doing what we want. From this point on I vow to not let my anxiety hold me back, and I hope you all join me in taking that vow.