Freshman year was filled with biology classes, Netflix binges, coffee, and Jesus.

This is what I learned...

1. The Freshman 15 is REAL. VERY REAL

Have you ever heard of a dining hall? If you haven't let me break it down for you. You walk through the doors of this giant room, probably starving because you are a college student and what college student has time to eat with all that studying, am I right? (@momandDad) But anyways, you're starving, and you begin to take a short lap around the room to survey your options. You pass the salad bar and think to yourself "ooo I'll come back for some spinach salad with vinaigrette dressing because I'm healthy!" You keep walking and you begin to pass what I like to call "The half-healthy" tables. These are displays of chicken tacos and fettuccine alfredo and more plates filled with meals you could possibly find at home, although they are never nearly as good. And finally you begin to walk into what I like to call The Vortex. The Vortex is filled with delicious looking pizza and curly fries and when you look even farther into The Vortex you see cookies and ice cream, and it all just looks magical. One piece of pizza slowly becomes twelve and so on and so forth and at the end of the meal you couldn't possibly imagine returning to grab that plate of salad with vinaigrette because that would require leaving this magical Vortex of goodness. The Vortex is real and so is the Freshman 15.

2. My parents will always be my best friends

I realized this when my mother said these words over the phone "Although these people you are around now may care about you, they do not know you like we do. They do not love you like we do." It was right then that it hit me. It did not matter what city I was in, it did not matter what state I was in, my parents, irrevocably will always have my back. My parents will always be excited by my accomplishments, and will always remind me to find the joy in life when I have shortcomings. Although my friends here are truly special, there is nothing like having my parents as best friends.

3. Call your grandparents every chance you get

I am lucky enough to have my grandparents living less than two hours away. But the same idea applies. There is nothing like calling up your Nana and being able to tell her anything at all and still, after you have spent ten minutes explaining your failures in just the past month, she replies with a simple "We are Proud of you!" Grandparents are such a gift, and time spent with them is never time wasted.

4. Being intentional with people goes a long way

Being intentional. I believe I could write an entire article on this simple idea. Being intentional with someone, whoever it is, goes far beyond suggesting you both get coffee, or go grab dinner. Being intentional with someone requires a conscious decision on your part to remember the small details of another person's life. It requires you to understand that you are not, and will never be, the center of the universe and there are other human beings trying to get by just like you. Being intentional requires a thoughtful mind and a compassionate soul and by no means am I claiming this is easy. I have learned over the past ten months that remembering someone likes their coffee iced instead of hot, and that someone had an interview for a job they truly wanted, and that someone's father needed prayers for his upcoming surgery, truly goes further than any superficial lunch date. Being intentional is what creates friendships and relationships deeper than you could possibly imagine.

5. Go to every football game

School spirit is cool. Whatever you thought about it in high school, being proud of the university you go to is what the cool kids do. Dressing in school colors and tailgating with your friends is something you will truly miss when you graduate. Go to every football game to support the guys who work their butts off to represent your school and take pictures when you win so you can remember times like the Baylor vs. TCU game.

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6. If they are giving away free t-shirts... GO

I don't care what it is. It could be a tennis match or a Pi Phi dodgeball tournament, if they are offering a free t-shirt you better be there early because:

A) They will go fast

B) You can never have enough t-shirts to events you may or may not have attended solely to receive said t-shirt

7. Queso is always a great idea

In any state. In every city. At any time. For every meal. If the choice is between salad and queso, always choose queso.

8. Whether a boy likes you or not does not define your worth

In the past year I have seen multiple girls crying over the boy that asked them out and then didn't text them the next day. But the truth is, that boy should never have the power to effect your emotions. That boy does not decide your worth. Your worth has already been settled on the cross. JESUS LITERALLY DIED FOR US. HE PAID FOR US WITH HIS LIFE. Our worth can never be, nor will it ever be found in this flawed and fallen world. Our worth cannot be measured by the accomplishments we achieve on earth and likewise it cannot be diminished by our failures and it most definitely cannot be determined by a simple boy. Our worth will always and forever be found in our perfect and wonderful Savior and not a second should go by that we think otherwise.

9. DO NOT TAKE 8 AM CLASSES

This speaks for itself.

10. I am loved by an amazing, extraordinary, and majestic God.

The most important thing I have come to realize in these past ten months is that God is truly majestic. I viewed God too humanly and I placed him in a small box taped down and pushed in a corner constantly trying to keep him in it even as his majestic, miraculous,and exalted power pushed through the cracks desperately trying to show me how NOT human he really is. His power is greater than anything I could ever imagine and the fact that I belong to him, that someone like that could love me, is incredible and mind-blowing.