Park here, check in there, put your stuff here, go meet your suite-mates, go to your orientation group, be awkward and introduce yourself to everyone! This right here is an accurate representation of my first day of college, move in day. I thought to myself, “Great, this ought to be fun...” My first three days consisted of awkward ice breakers and barely any free time to just sit back and realize “Wow, I’m at college!”

When classes first started, I have to admit I was pretty psyched to be starting school. It was the first time I’ve ever been excited to start school. Yes, you read that right. I was excited for school. As classes started I began to fall into a routine, and had all the preconceived notions that I was going to be drowning in work and never have any free time. I, myself, was very worried about this since in high school I was a professional procrastinator (as well as everyone in existence). But this wasn’t the case. Somehow, I have no idea how, my time management skills kicked in and I spaced out my work in a fashionable manner so I could still enjoy myself while completing work at the same time. This isn’t the case for everyone, but it was for me luckily.

The one thing I was worried about when I got to school was making friends. I knew absolutely no one coming into school, so I was all on my own. I’m not going to lie, the first couple of days sucked. I made about three solid friends and stuck with them for a little bit, but eventually we grew apart. Luckily for me, I branched out after that, and I advise everyone to do the same. Be awkward, who cares if you think you look stupid, it’s the only way you’ll make friends. I did that and gained a bunch of friends. They won’t judge you because you’re all in the same boat. The people I met my first couple weekends are my closest friends here now, and we pretty much hang out every day. Eventually I joined the club baseball team. It was a good break from academics, and it was a great way to make more friends and still play the game I love.

Now, like everyone else, I partied. I partied pretty hard. There’s a saying I like to go by and it’s “Study hard but party harder,” and I did just that. I’m not going to go into much detail here but I’ve had some pretty lit weekends, and I can’t wait for more. Now I know why they say college is the best four years of your life. It’s true.

All in all, my first semester of college was really not as bad as I expected. I made a decent amount of friends and the work isn’t too hard, you just have to manage your time well. If you think that you had a rough first semester, just take a deep breath and relax. It’ll get better, I promise. I’m excited for what these next three and a half years bring me and I can’t wait to live it up.