As July comes to a close and as summer becomes hotter than ever, the starting date for many colleges also creeps closer. For the soon-to-be college freshman, this is an exciting prospect. Finally being in college, making new friends, and operating independently sounds amazing, and it is. Here are five realities, however, that every college freshman should know before the semester begins.
1. You will miss high school.
At some point, you will look back and realize you miss being in high school. I promise you will. You will miss getting as much sleep or not being as stressed. You will miss your best friend who is off at another college far away. You might even miss some of your former teachers. Being in college is great and all, but it does not mean you can't miss where you used to be every now and again.
2. The friends you make at orientation may not always turn out to be your best friends.
This
may seem harsh, but it is true. The people you meet at orientation and
hang out with during your first weeks at college are not guaranteed to
be your best friends for the next four years. Some very well may be, but
many will eventually go their own way and find other friends. And so
will you. Maybe it will be in a particularly hard class or in the
cafeteria. Or you might even find friends in your own major (*gasp*).
Either way, you will make friends -- it just might not be in the ways you
expect.
3. Dorm life is not all that great.
You spend so much time planning how to decorate your dorm room and being excited over finally having your own space to live in, but when you're finally moved in? It's cramped. You have to share a bathroom. The people above you are really really loud. Two weeks into the semester, you lock yourself out of your room. Turns out, dorm life is not as glamorous as people made it out to be. You're living in reality, and the only advantages are your friends and the lessons you learn in patience and responsibility.
4. You will feel overwhelmed.
Here's the bottom line: you will go to all your classes on the first day, your professors will go over the entire syllabus in each one of them, and you will feel overwhelmed. You will feel as if there is no possible way on earth that you can complete all your assignments and still be sane at the end of the semester. And that's okay. It's okay to feel overwhelmed, but know that you will survive. You will be able to complete all your assignments, take all of your exams, and perform at all of your recitals. It will be OK, and at the end of the semester you will be stronger because of it all.
5. You will never be an expert at college.
If you're a freshman and you think that juniors or seniors or even sophomores have more figured out about college than you do, think again. We may have figured out better study skills or have more knowledge about how things operate around campus, but ultimately we upperclassmen are still just trying to study hard and survive college just like you are.
Overall, college is an amazing experience, and you will learn so much both academically and personally. It's not all sunshine, but it will help you prepare to enter the real world one day. And, ultimately, that is what getting an education is all about.
