The bad news is time flies. The good news is, you’re the pilot.

I have officially survived my first semester in college… ever. It was full of bad memories, good memories, and everything in between. From the day I moved in on September 5^th everything had changed. Suddenly instead of sitting around the dining room table enjoying dinner with my family, I was sitting in a massive dining hall with a ton of strangers; the only friends I had were the ones I made at orientation the month before. Instead of sleeping in my comfy and queen sized bed, I am sleeping in a small twin size bed that feels more like I am sleeping on bricks than an actual bed, and that’s with the egg crate on top. Not to mention that I am no longer living in my own room, but I have to share my room with a complete stranger and shower in communal bathrooms.

Now, everything that I am saying, I am not saying these things like they are a bad thing. I am cherishing the moments of my experience in college so far, and boy it was an experience. As my freshman year is coming to an end, I cannot wait until next year where I’m going to get the opportunity to do so much more and meet even more people. However, I will be honest, college was not originally how I expected it. My best friend who moved into college a year before me has loved every second of it. She hit it off with her roommates right away and according to her Snapchat stories, she was always laughing with her friends or involved in some sort of activity. My experience was little different than hers.

When I first got to campus I didn’t quite “hit it off” with my roommate, which is completely fine. I mean some people do not click, right? I especially did not get myself involved in clubs or sports which also made it hard for me to enjoy myself when I was sitting in my room all the time. A lot of my friends lived across campus so it was hard for me to get together and see them more than five days a week, so I spent a lot of dinners at the dining hall alone. I also started taking my meals from the dining hall back to my room and then bringing the dishes back in the morning. I spent more time on school work than socializing which is totally okay. I was still trying to figure my way around campus and perfecting the perfect schedule (which I might add, still isn’t perfect). Once finals came around I found that I was making more friends and since I have been back from break I feel my social life has branched out.

I finally came to the realization that college is truly what you make of it. If you sit in your room all day, of course you aren’t going to have any fun, but if you get out there and get active in your college community you are bound to make friends and have a good time. I learned that the hard way first semester but my second semester has been a completely different experience for me, I have friends and am completely diversifying myself in different activities on campus. Oh… and did I mention my school is right on the beach?