As I have become fully engulfed in my second semester as a college freshman, I am finally able to realize how much I have changed, grown, and developed. College is something that you're worried about since the time you are enrolled in high school. You suddenly have to worry about GPA’s, community involvement, extracurricular activities, and so much more, just to stand out among other applicants. Then all of a sudden the day you thought would never come does: Move-in Day. This is the day that is full of all kinds of emotions — joy, sadness, confusion, frustration, fear, loneliness—you will experience it all. As the room becomes the dorm room you have designed on Pinterest, you are filled with a sense of happiness, but then your parents walk about the door and it closes and you are alone for the first time. From there, emotions are on a rollercoaster. Some days you are happy and others you are scared out of your mind.

Just when you think you can handle this, classes begin and they are nothing like all the teachers in high school told you they would be. They are demanding, time-consuming, and rigorous. You begin to engulf all your time in studying and trying to keep your head above water that you forget to focus on making new friends and learning about who you are.

But if you will, let me tell you three things I learned in one semester of college.

1. There is no place like home.

When you are picking colleges, no one ever tells you to keep in mind that 200 miles is a long way from home and sometimes you cannot drive home whenever you want. But when you first get to come home it's an overwhelming feeling that cannot be described, you try to soak up every moment you can while you are there. You finally begin to realize how much family means. But I learned I can always cling to God. “When my heart is faint lead me to the rock that is higher than I,” Psalm 61:2

2. I had never grown up.

When we turn eighteen we suddenly think we are independent adults who can take on whatever the world throws your way, but I can assure you that when you move away, you quickly learn you aren’t a superhero. I soon realized how much my mom did for me. She washed my dishes, made my food, took out the trash, did my laundry, bought groceries, cleaned up after me, and made sure my medicine was filled. I quickly did not know how I was going to make it a week without her. In one semester of college, I not only learned too much book knowledge for my brain, but I also learned that it was time to be an adult.

3. The true value in time management.

There is no “free time” in college. I feel like there is always something to do, there is always an event, or if you are an athlete there is always a practice. You truly have to figure out how to juggle school, social life, and extracurricular things while maintaining a decent GPA so you can get a job. There are still times when you binge watch TV or procrastinate a paper until 3 a.m., but time management is something that will make or break you in college.

College is a rollercoaster that will take you places you never thought you would go. Just hang on and stay in the car because it's bound to be a wild ride that will teach you more than you thought humanly possible.