You applied. You were accepted (maybe deferred or rejected, as well). But ultimately you committed yourself to an upper level institution for the next few years. You got a school shirt, said your goodbyes and now you’re here: waving goodbye to your parents’ minivan as they pull out of your new home for the next eight months.

The truth is, freshman year is fantastic. Whether its ten minutes or ten hours away from home, college offers new opportunities as well as freedom and independence. It’s a new reality that you will embark on. And it’s incredible.

But sometimes it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. And thanks to the era of social media, it has become much more difficult to understand and accept that.

When you’re feeling down and you scroll through your dashboard or timeline, it’s likely that you’ll only see your high school friends smiling and laughing with their new bffs. They’re having the time of their lives, right? It’s easy in that moment to feel like you’ve been doing something wrong because you don’t feel as happy as those girls in the candid laughing pictures.

It’s important to remember that that’s a filtered reality.

There are no pictures of your high school girlfriends (or any friends for that matter) calling their moms crying because they’re homesick, or spending a Saturday night in their dorm room because they haven’t really found their “group” yet.

It’s important to remember that you’re not alone in doing so.

The transition into freshman year isn’t flawless in any way. Along with any new beginning, there will be trials and stresses. Because trust me, you’re going to miss home (as much as you say you won’t, sometimes all you really need is your own bed and your dog), you’ll probably lose something that your mom could easily find (and if you’re anything like me, you’ll call her crying asking her to coach you into finding it), you’ll have professors that drive you mad or classes that make you feel insane. But you aren’t alone. I guarantee you all of your hall mates and high school friends have felt just as crummy at one point or another.

Freshman year is incredible, if you let it be. There will be tears and homesickness and frustration adapting to a different lifestyle. But there will also be laughter and growth and new best friends.

It’s important to embrace all of the beauty as well as all of the ugliness. Because that’s what makes it a journey.

Freshman year, just like life, is all about choices. So here’s some advice- choose to sign up and participate in new things. Choose to attend class and better your academia. Choose to introduce yourself and ask some friendly faces to coffee. Choose to call home (because they miss you more than you know and admit it: you miss them too). Choose to embrace the new opportunities that present themselves.

And above all else, choose to live for yourself and your new life instead of faking and posing for the insta likes- because I promise you, those candid “I love my college life” pictures WILL come naturally.