Laundry Bag? Check. Shower Shoes? Check. Keurig? Check.

The summer before college, every student ecstatically fantasizes about the new, wild experiences they will soon have. These experiences include the opportunity to live according to their own terms, meeting friends you will share your entire life with and building a solid foundation for your future endeavors. Nevertheless, each and every student faces a period of disillusionment – no matter how prepared they seem to be.

However, coming from a school district where I knew everyone, transitioning into a school where my graduating class size is the same as my lecture class size is very much a culture shock. In fact, it took countless visits to her office hours for my professor to finally learn my name. I had never thought this would be such a strived accomplishment. In addition, being at the top of the class in my high school, I never thought of being average in college. Despite studying well in advance and late nights, I was still not as fruitful as I would have liked to be. Yet, there is something to be learned from this situation. This obstacle serves as a stepping stone to developing humility. Through these experiences, you will learn you will need to strive to thrive in the real world and success is not handed to you, but earned.

It’s easy to imagine making the best friends of your life immediately and easily. In fact, it is almost always the case that the friends you meet during O-week will be those people you awkwardly acknowledge but never talk to for the next four years. This social transition is probably one of the hardest and most emotionally taxing situation faced by an incoming college student. Overcoming the feeling of loneliness is a difficult task for a small fish in a big pond. This aspect of the college transition taught me patience and acceptance – accepting that being best friends with everyone is impossible, and with patience, I will find my people.

In the midst of dreaming of my amazing college experience, I never realized I would think of myself as a small fish in a big pond. Being the person who knew everyone in school and was consistently successful with little effort, I found that my transition to college has been a rollercoaster. However, I do not regret any obstacles because these hindrances are the stepping stone to success, hurdles that will teach me lessons that will influence my decisions throughout my lifetime. Now, I am not only a small fish, but a strong one. Being a small fish has allowed me to experience both professional and social failure through which I have grown as a person. I guess being a small fish in a big pond is not so bad at all.