The transition from high school to college is a difficult one. As much as you think you are prepared for it, there is no way you can predict what obstacles life will throw at you your first year. Stuck in a weird limbo between your teenage years and adult life, where you kind of have your parents' help, but where you're also basically on your own, sometimes it feels like there should be an instruction manual for all the things that will come up your freshman year - laundry in machines that work only half of the time, public transportation, using meal swipes responsibly, etc. As my first year of college comes to a close, I wish I could go back in time and tell myself these things before I moved three thousand miles away from home.
- College is a new chapter in your life, but you don't have to start over completely. Go out of your way to make new friends, but also let the time you spend apart from your friends back home make your friendships with them stronger. If you're still friends after being apart for a year, there's probably a good reason they're in your life.
- Learn to tell people how you feel and what you need. Get comfortable doing it. No one can read your mind. No one has the time to try to figure out the hints you think you're dropping. It's best to be forward.
- Find what makes you happy and immerse yourself in it. Whether it's a group of people, a club, sport, or major that you love, if you're passionate about it, embrace it. At this point in your life, you deserve to be happy and surrounded by things that help you grow and better yourself.
- People mature in different ways and at different rates. Accept it. Move on.
- Your plans will change. Your major will change. If you drop that pre-med track, you're not just "a statistic." You'll change your major six times in six weeks, and consider twice as many minors. It's normal. These things take time.
- Don't let your advisors intimidate you. They're there to help you.
- Your feelings are valid. Your feelings are valid. Your feelings are valid.
- Do not plan your schedule around when the shuttle says it will be there. It won't be there.
- Classes are hard, but you picked this school. Please study for that midterm.
- Moving across the country to a city where you know no one is terrifying, but I promise you it's worth it.
