Syracuse University provides peer advisors for each freshmen student, in every major, to help adjust to the school as well as receive help and advice from upperclassmen. Coming in as a freshman to Syracuse, I was excited to have a mentor to look up to as I did not know anyone coming in. However, with my big expectation, there was a bigger disappointment.

Freshmen year was the hardest year for me as I dealt with friendship drama and a bit of identity crisis. I often wondered if I chose the wrong school to attend because, during this time, I felt lonely and lost. Although my situation was not about academics, I contacted my peer advisor, hoping for guidance and a little bit of encouragement.

I messaged my assigned peer advisor and planned a coffee meet-up with her, to discuss school, my major, and about what I was dealing with. Although I was not expecting a direct answer or help from her since it was a personal problem, I did want a genuine care.

Maybe it was too much I was expecting because we did just meet and technically, we were still strangers, but there was a different expectation that came with the title of 'peer advisor'.

With such little help I received, I did not want this experience to be repeated the next year. That's when I decided to be a peer advisor the next year, and now coming to my final year of being a peer advisor.

Each new school year, I think about my freshmen year - the excitement, the expectations, as well as the nervousness, and worry of the unknown, as I prepare for my own peer advisees. At first, they are all just names that I see, but soon they become faces and stories that are brought to our college campus.

College is so confusing at first with so many unanswered questions thrown at your face, but as a peer advisor, I always hope to at least be a friend in my advisee's beginning stages. There usually isn't continuous communication after about two months, but to be a help during those few weeks of school is enough for me.

College experiences will be very different for each person, but to use my personal experience as a guideline might be helpful to someone, somehow, and I may also be able to learn from my advisees as well.

It's exciting and I am excited for my last year as a peer advisor.