Nothing can really prepare anyone for everything that college brings.
You enter college thinking that you know a lot about how the world works and how people work. I mean you have had at least 17 to 18 years of experience on this earth by the time you get yourself into college.
You enter college believing that you know yourself to a tee. Again, you've had 17 to 18 years to simply get to know yourself. If you've made it this far, you must know a solid amount about yourself, right?
You enter college with excellent grades behind you from high school and a plethora of extracurricular activities under your belt. If it was simple to be involved in high school and you worked hard to get these good grades, then you can do the exact same in college.
You might even enter college knowing what you want to major in. You've had this profession locked into your head since your freshman year of high school, and nothing will make you change your mind. It's perfect for you and always has been.
I have no idea what people have told you about college, but I'm going to be real - it is absolutely an amazing part of your life. However, you need to be willing to make it amazing, and you need to be prepared for the unprepared. By this, I mean that a lot of things will come your way that will knock your college experience to the ground sometimes. But, you need to be able to stand back up from these punches - always.
Personally, science has always come really easy to me. I've always been a very easy-going, go-with-the-flow person, and I had it stuck in my brain for the last 2 years of high school that I was going to be a nurse. And, I have always found it easy to get involved and meet new people. Well, I got to college and all of that changed.
My science classes are my hardest classes - they absolutely do not come easy to me anymore, and I need to study hard to obtain good grades in those classes. As for being a laid back person, I still am, but I've learned that I get really anxious now when it comes to small things. And when it comes to my major, I discovered pretty quickly that nursing may not be the best choice for me, and I've already thought about probably five other major options. Plus, it struck me by surprise that I wasn't making tons of friendships within the first week of school (I now realize, though, that this is normal). All of this, and more, was new to me when I got to college. It definitely threw me off.
But, this is where being prepared for the unprepared and making your college experience amazing comes into play.
I am first-hand warning you that college is not always like the pictures you see on Instagram, but I'm also telling you that you can make it like that - you can make it however you want it to be, actually. When you begin to figure out things about yourself, others, classes, and your major that you never expected to figure out, take it with a grain of salt and embrace it. Whenever you get knocked down or experience a setback, stand up from it and push forward. It'll be new and sometimes stressful, but it's all apart of college. It's normal. If I hadn't pushed past my unexpected discoveries, college wouldn't be very great. At all.
So, take the stresses of college along with all of the amazing things it has to offer. If you take them and treat them as a normal part of college (hint - they are) then you'll find yourself reacting better to all of these changes. Overall, college is legitimately the best thing that has happened to me so far and I'm not even finished with my first year. Be sure to put yourself out there, join something, and get involved - this makes for the best college experience! But, also be sure to study and put aside time for classes and yourself. That's always important, too.
