If you feel alone or like this school year has been extremely rough, you are not the only one. For the students at Missouri State University, there is about 1 month of school left. This is crazy to me to think that my freshman year of college is almost over. If you are like me then this year has been extremely rough. But if not, well you got lucky. I am just so ready for school to be over and for it to be summer. I feel like no one really quite understands what I have been through this year. I am sure that people do I just haven't really told anyone how I feel. So, that is why I want to write this. I want others to feel like they are not alone because I feel like that.

First off I did not expect college to be this difficult. I know it is not like this for everyone but it has been rough. To deal with this I recommend studying a lot. I didn't really study a ton in high school so I kinda felt like I didn't need to as much now. But, there has definitely been times this school year that I knew I should have studied more.

Second, this might be kind of dumb but I feel like I am always lonely. I have a few friends that stayed and went to school here, but I don't see them too often just because I feel like I am always too busy on my days off. I have had a difficult time making friends and covid definitely does not make that better. I also live off-campus so I think that makes it hard too. I do have three roommates, but they are always gone, which is why I feel this way. For this, I would recommend trying to making new friends early, because everyone is going to be looking for new friends at the beginning of the year. Especially all the Freshmen.

Third, DO NOT overwork yourself. I was working about 36 hours a week for a few weeks and going to school full time and that was not fun at all. I didn't mean for that to happen it just did and it was terrible. I now work about 25ish hours a week and I still feel like that is too much with the amount of school work I have to do. But I have to pay rent.

Fourth, I am always exhausted. I wake up, I am tired. I go through the day, I am tired (most of the time). At night, I am tired. I am sure this is average for every college student, but I do not know if I can be like this for 4 or more years. I really don't think I go to bed that late and I only wake up pretty early a couple of days of the week. I just feel like there aren't enough hours in the day for me to do everything

Fifth, I have no motivation. I will get my work done and on time, but doing it kills me. It takes so much for me to focus and actually finish my assignments.

I feel like because of everything I am mentioned and more that my mental health isn't the best. I don't really know how to help this. I just am always stressed about something and I just really need it to be summer at this point. I hope reading this made you feel like you aren't alone.