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Real Advice For Real College Freshmen

Your first year might not be the "best year of your life"

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Real Advice For Real College Freshmen
Shannon Steffen

You spend your entire senior year of high school dreaming about life after graduation. You can’t wait to start school at the University you have decided is going to be everything you ever wanted. You spend the summer after graduation planning every aspect of the next four years. You have picked out the pictures you are going to hang on the walls of your dorm and you just met your roommate over Facebook. You have spent a considerable amount of time stalking all the social media accounts of the sororities you plan on visiting during recruitment.

Now it’s a couple months into school and things might not have turned out the way you had so perfectly planned. You might not have found that friend group that clicked right away, and now you’re worried you won’t find those friends for life everyone was getting you excited for. Now who’s going to be your bridesmaids?

You might not be best friends with the cool girl you hung out with for the first week but went separate ways after the school year began, even though you thought she was going to be your person. You thought it would be a lot easier to be in a group message.

You might not have gotten into the sorority you wanted the most and you might not have ended up in one at all, and now your confidence has been torn at and you feel like you’re already missing out. What are you going to do with all the costumes you bought in preparation for themed parties?

You might be questioning your major and wondering if it’s too early to change it, and now you are nervous that you might not know what it is that you want to pursue as a career. What if your school doesn't have a good program for a major you might want to switch to?

You might be missing home and wondering why you ever left the town you once felt so comfortable in, and now you look for any weekend you can possibly return for just a night.

You might be nostalgic and finding yourself looking through pictures from high school, and now you wonder why you wanted it to go by so fast. You wonder if the rest of your friends miss it as much as you do.

You might be looking at all the Instagrams and snapstories of your best friends making new friends and wondering why everyone seems to be having the time of their life except you.

You might be wondering what school you can transfer to next semester and what people will think when they find out you don't love the school you had been so excited about.

I want to tell you that you are not the only college student feeling this way right now. On your college campus, even in your residence hall, there are so many people that are second-guessing their choice. There are people overthinking their class schedule and going home every chance they get. There are many more people than you would think that went through recruitment and didn't get the results they wanted. Everyone is trying their hardest to make friends, feel comfortable and do their best. Your first year might not be the "best year of your life." That's OK. Trust me, you are not the only one.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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