College is the best time of your life but when you are wide-eyed and optimistic touring your future school you won’t know the hardships you are soon going to face. You will not realize how exhausted you will eventually be, physically and mentally you will be tired. There will be nights where you are up till 4 A.M. finishing projects and studying for exams. There will also be nights when you have three 5-page papers due on the same day and you struggle to finish them all.

Walking into the student center you will not realize how your social life will suffer. When you want to hang out with your friends but you can’t because you have to write another paper. Just when you think you have it figured out you will probably get in a relationship and that will flip your social life upside down.

Walking into the beautiful library you will be too distracted by the enormity of it to realize how many late nights will be spent there. You won’t realize how high school is like pre-school compared to college. Offering what is supposed to be a dry run for college but really not preparing students at all.

When you go to college your adviser won’t explain to you that just because your 18 does not mean you’re an adult. Only after you’ve dyed your white clothes red from washing them wrong, have eaten Ramen noodles 5 nights in a row, know how to write a check, and don’t have to call your parents when something goes wrong are you an adult, and even then you probably still are not even close.

When you flip through the brochure you won’t see yourself missing home. Craving your old family traditions and wanting nothing more than to spend an afternoon with your high school friends again or eating your mom’s home cooked dinner. All you will see is your future, as bright as the sun that shines on your new Kentucky home.

Walking to a class room building you may not realize what the term failure means until you studied 20 hours for a test only to get the score back and see that you have failed it. The pit in your stomach will start to form as you fight back the tears questioning if you belong here.

But it will happen. All of it. And it’s ok because it is part of the growing process. There is no doubt in my mind that college is the greatest time of my life but not without its challenges. To incoming freshmen you will be ok, just know that you are not alone because everyone is feeling the exact same way. Good luck on your freshmen year and take the good with the bad because it will be over so much faster than you think.