As April ends, college students are approaching their last few weeks of classes and finals at university. In three short weeks, my first year at Rutgers University will be over and I will officially be a sophomore. It is crazy to think about how much has changed and how much I have changed since I started college in September. I've learned a lot over these past nine months and I wanted to share some of those things.

First thing every student will realize when they go to college is how much of a bubble you are in high school. In high school you interact with the same people every day, people generally you have known most of your life. However, when you get to college it is a whole different ball game. Every day you meet someone new from somewhere different. This has really helped me become more open as a person and more open to the world. Meeting all kinds of new people from all over the country and world has helped me realize a lot about life I hadn't realized before.

The first thing that was a change for me was to learn that not everybody will like me. You can't please everyone and sometimes you have to think about yourself first. This doesn't necessarily mean you will have "beef" with people it's just in college everyone has so much to do and figure out on your own, you can't waste your time thinking about everyone else. You have to put yourself first sometimes. College is a time solely for you. It is a time where you learn who you are as an individual and make experiences as an independent young adult for probably the first time in your life. You work on building good relationships and connections but nobody is worth draining your energy.

I've learned that sometimes things are just the way they are and you can't really do anything to change it. Somethings are simply out of your control. Work hard and do what you can from your side but you can only control the outcome to a certain point. You can only influence a person or thing to a certain extent. Sometimes this can be stressful. Especially when things aren't going the smoothest and you will encounter many such times like that throughout your college career.

Everything clicked for me my first semester, but my second semester was when I started to really encounter some difficulties. Nothing was going the way I wanted it to. This was especially hard for me because it was the first time in my life where things were not going my way. But, at one point you have to trust the process. Trust that with times, things do fall into place. And even though sometimes it really doesn't seem like it, everything does happen for a reason. You may not understand the reason for a while, but eventually, you will realize certain things are a blessing in disguise.

Every challenge or problem you encounter will make you a stronger person. It will teach you things about yourself that you wouldn't have known if it weren't for the challenge. There is something to learn from every situation whether it is academic, social, or personal. This doesn't mean you don't put in any work and just expect things to fall into place: no, you actually have to work to get the reward. I've also realized I can't stress about everything. As I said earlier, things fall into place with time and as long as you put the work in and you do what you can from your side, you can't do anything else. It is the effort that counts.

Lastly, I've realized, it is the most unexpected things that are the best things. I never expected to meet my best friends.

I never expected to experience everything I have so far in college. But it is those unexpected experiences that make life interesting. You should have goals and a plan for your life, but you can't expect everything to go your way. You never know when something will happen that completely changes the way things are going for you. You never know when something will come that makes your life for the better or for the worse. You never know, so all you can do is keep the big picture in mind and take it day by day.

I found this quote on Prince Ea's Instagram that I wanted to share that helped me when I lost sight of thing and got too tangled into the stresses of the present:

"Be grateful that certain things didn't work out. Sometimes you don't even know what you're being protected from or where you're being guided to when you're in the midst of chaos. That's why you just have to trust that greater things are aligning for you.