The weather is getting colder, the Starbucks beverages are getting warmer, and the only topic of conversation seems to be that cuffing season is right around the corner. Ladies, I am all for wanting cuddles and attention, but it's 2018, we don't need a man to make us happy.

This is not to say relationships are an absolute no-go. If you have someone who genuinely brings you happiness, props to you, but stressing and obsessing over someone right now, is NOT the most important aspect of life to focus on.

Sometimes as women, we tend to look for love in all the wrong places and that's the first mistake.

I apologize in advance for the blunt nature of this observation, but you will meet many boys in these next four years, and drunk connections don't necessitate love connections.

The random guy at the bar grinding on you will not care about you in the morning. The hot frat guy in your math class isn't trying to link this weekend. The boy next door who you seemingly always run into right after a shower and a face mask is not the boy next door the movie industry loves to romanticize.

There is nothing wrong with a one night stand or a casual hook up, but it's important to understand the intentions others may have before growing attached or catching feelings.

Plus, if these men are genuine, they will ask you out to dinner, not for your Snapchat.

It's crucial to guard your heart, especially as you learn more about yourself throughout college and learn of what will cultivate your personal happiness.

Boys aren't everything, but friends sure as hell are.

Like I said, cuffing season is around the corner, but the pursuit of a boy can be empty. The girls you call your best friends are definitely not, though.

They become your home away from home. You eat with them, you study with them, you hit the bars with them. My friends, whom I have come to love dearly, are the best girl gang I could ever ask for. We're crazy, obnoxious, and slightly out of control, but we always have each other's backs.

The comfort that you're searching for is in the girl, or girls, you'll probably end up rooming with one of these four years.

Don't underestimate your best friend either. Guy or girl, they are your shoulder to cry on, your therapist, and will more often than not call you on your bullshit. When you get the chance, thank them for keeping you sane.

Remember what we're really here for.

Let's also not forget that while college, especially at a school like Syracuse, is filled with blurry weekends and Snapchat memories to laugh, or cry, at on Sunday mornings, there is so much more to a prestigious university than tailgates, bars, and boys.

We pay $70k a year for reputation, prestige and a heated promenade, not heartbreak and disappointment.

In 2016, Whitman School of Management was ranked the 23rd best undergraduate business school by Bloomberg. In 2017, College Magazine ranked S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications the no. 1 school for communications in the nation.

With rankings as such, we, as college students, should be invested in maintaining this reputation. If the goal is to be successful, no matter how one defines their personal success, now is the time to invest in the future.

Stop missing assignments, failing exams, and sleeping through class. I am certainly guilty of each, but it truly is time to stop bullshitting.

If you say you want to become that powerful businesswoman, CEO, politician, writer, activist: go do it. Put your words to action and put in the hard work it takes to achieve that level of success.

It's all about you this season.

The right person will walk into your life when you least expect it. We create this preconceived notion about how someone is supposed to sweep us off our feet and by doing so, it only sets the heart up for rejection and disappointment.

Let life play itself out and good things are bound to come.

As for now, you have the power to dictate who you are and who you will become. Focus on self-care and develop a mindset that will lead you to achieve the goals you set. I cannot stress how important mental strength is as it is key in surviving the bullshit life will throw at you.

As women, we are independent and have so many opportunities at our fingertips. It is truly a waste of our time and energy to pursue anything other than something that will bring us the utmost happiness. It's okay to be single this season, we're stronger on our own, anyway.