As an incoming college freshman, there are probably a lot of things you’re excited about: making new friends, joining clubs or Greek life, majoring in something you’re passionate about, taking more interesting classes, etc.
But there are probably a lot of things you’re worried about, too. And that’s okay.
College can be scary for a lot of reasons, and it’s impossible to be fully prepared for all the changes that will take place. But it’s not impossible to handle them. Here's a list of things to know going into your freshman year that will, hopefully, ease your mind of the scary things so you can focus more on the exciting things:
1. Senioritis does not go away on its own. But you can get rid of it.
This is the most unfortunate truth of them all. In high school, you worked and worked to be able to get into a good college, and when you got to the home stretch of senior year, senioritis kicked in and every assignment felt like a burden. But high school is over now—you did it, you crossed the finish line—and you’re ready for a fresh start.
But the thing is, that feeling doesn’t go away on its own. Even if you pick the perfect major and you’re passionate about your classes, schoolwork is not going to feel fun. After all, you’ve been doing it your whole life. You’ve worked and worked and worked to get into college, and your reward is… more work. Or, at least, that’s how it feels at first.
When this happens, don’t be discouraged. It’s not uncommon to feel overwhelmed by all the changes happening around you. But it doesn’t have to feel that way forever. The key is to not let yourself get wrapped up in the negative feelings. Instead, look for things to get excited about. Find the parts of your classes and assignments that motivate you, and you'll change the way you look at schoolwork. College is a new adventure, so treat it as such. The best way to do that is to…
2. Let yourself adjust.
Don’t try to force your high school strategies on college schoolwork. I learned this the hard way—most people do. You’ve probably already heard speeches about how much harder college is than high school and that you can’t wait until the night before a test to study for it. While this is true for some classes and less true for others, none of these speeches can prepare you for the adjustments you have to learn on your own. You know you can’t wait to study until the last minute, but when do you start? A week before? Two weeks before? Is it already too late?
Letting yourself adjust means giving yourself room to make mistakes so you can learn. So, when you do make mistakes—like waiting too late to study or studying the wrong thing—don’t get discouraged. It's perfectly okay to learn the hard way sometimes, as long as you're learning. There’s nothing you can’t come back from unless you give up.
3. It's okay to go home every weekend. And it's okay not to.
If you're going to college close to home, you're probably thinking about how often you're going to come home. Just breaks? Weekends? When you get to college, you'll develop a pretty good idea of how many road trips home you want to take. But then there's the question: if you go home often, are you missing out on "the college experience"? If you don't go home often, are you neglecting your family/friends from home?
The answer is simpler than you think: it doesn't matter. As someone who did both (first semester, I only came home a few times; second semester, I came home every weekend), I can tell you that it really doesn't matter how often you go home. You can get just as much out of "the college experience" on weekdays and hang out with your family on weekends. On the other hand, your family and friends will understand if you don't come home. Neither choice is greater than the other. It's really up to you and what you want to prioritize.
4. Making new habits is important. So is keeping your old ones.
Because college requires a lot of adjusting, you're going to make a lot of new habits: for example, having a set study/homework time every day or going to the cafeteria at the same time every day with your best friends. You're also going to figure out that doing laundry is a more important habit than you'd anticipated. All these are great because they help you adjust to your new world and help you become more independent, and some are even fun.
But, while you're expanding your world and making new habits, it's important not to forget your old ones. Going to church every Sunday was easy when your family was going, too. Telling your mom about your day was easy when she was in the next room. Keeping these habits will look different because you'll have to be your own motivation, and they might be hard to fit into your new world, but they still matter. While you're becoming more independent and growing as a person, it's important not to forget who you already are.
5. Being alone is not a bad thing.
Everyone knows college is a time where you become more independent. But being independent is more than just being away from your parents' rules and having to buy your own groceries. It's being able to trust yourself and think through your own decisions and be confident in them. To do that, you have to have the courage to be alone sometimes. So, if you're upset about sitting alone in your dorm room on a Friday night (been there) or considering letting yourself starve rather than eat alone in the cafeteria (done that), just remember doing things alone doesn't make you weak; it helps you to become more confident in your own decisions.
6. Having fun is important, too.
The most fortunate truth about college is that it's not just about studying or doing laundry or sitting alone in your dorm room. It's a whole lot of fun, too. You might have to do more things alone than you'd like to at first, but eventually you'll make friends that will do everything with you from going to events and parties to making late-night Sonic runs. There are so many organizations and clubs to join, and there are so many great people you'll meet when you do. It's important to take time to have fun and do things you enjoy so the stress of schoolwork isn't all you experience in college.
Everything about college is a learning experience. The most important thing to know going into it is that you shouldn't be too hard on yourself. You're going to have to figure a lot of things out on your own, and you're going to make friends who'll help you out. You're going to get stuff wrong, maybe multiple times, but that's OK. It might even be part of the fun.
After all, it's been said that if you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything.
