Ever since I was little, I remember being asked, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" When we are little we say something like the president, an astronaut, or in my case a princess. As we grow up, most of realize that the career path we chose when we were 5 is not completely viable in real life. Unless I some how pull a "Prince and Me" scenario, I probably will never get to be like Cinderella or Jasmine (not that I or any girl needs a prince to be happy).

We grow up and enter high school where we are introduced with the questions, where will we go to College; will we go to college at all; what will we do if we don't go to college; how will we pay for college if we do go; how to we pick which one to go to?

Let's go with the question, "Where will you go to college?" I played soccer in high school, but decided my sophomore year in high school that I did not want to try to play in college. I also was/am undecided about my major, so I had so much trouble trying to pick a university because I was not going to a major specific one. So I apply for University of South Florida because one of my best friends went there, University of Illinois because I had heard great things about it, and Eastern Illinois University because I knew a couple girls that went there. I got into all of them but didn't want to pay too much and didn't want to go to a huge university, so I decided on Eastern Illinois University. After you turn in all of these applications, you have to turn in scholarship applications because I mean unless you won the lottery or have money from your family how would you pay the 20,000 plus that a University charges.

So yay you got into college, but who will you room with in the dorms? If you know someone going to the same college, are you compatible enough to live together? Will you rip each other's head off? Or do you know absolutely no one? Well if that is the case you can get a random roommate or maybe look on room sync. Luckily, I found an awesome roommate on room sync, but some of my friends weren't so lucky.

Now you are going to your classes and what not, but you realize you don't know anyone. How will you socialize? Should you join some clubs or participate in IMs or join Greek life or just meet people in class? At Eastern, I definitely recommend going greek. This last weekend was recruitment for all of the sororities on Eastern's campus. Though in my opinion Panhellenic recruitment is very intimidating on both the inside and outside of it, it is a great process. These new girls go around from house to house trying to find their life long friends in a matter if 15 to 30 minutes, which is very scary. On the inside we all want certain girls and are so worried about saying the wrong thing or giving the wrong impression. Eventually everyone settles into their home. Being a member of a sorority though comes with both a lot of responsibility and can be time consuming. Of course I would not trade Delta Zeta for the world though!

Looking deeper into our social lives...honestly...girls are filled with drama. There is no way getting around that. We are emotional and mean sometimes. We also take something one way when someone meant it a different way. Yet while girls do fight constantly, we always have each other's backs regardless if our friend was arguing with someone that the sky is yellow. We also make way too big of a deal about the guys in our lives. I can relate to this; I have definitely cried over a boy. When something goes wrong in a relationship, it is hard to let go or to move past the flaws of it. Or when someone that you would like to get to know better doesn't feel the same, yeah it does suck. Everyone is looking to belong somewhere or to feel like they are at the right place at the right time and it is uncomfortable when things don't go how you wanted them to.

Going back to the career side of college though, WHAT DO WE DO WITH OUR LIVES??? I have been avoiding committing to a major because I am scared I will pick the wrong path. A bunch of the girls in my pledge class have been switching theirs because they figured out that they have chosen the wrong one. Picking a major is essentially picking the path that you are going to choose to go down the rest of your life. You can't jump from path to path in life. If you choose wrong, it is like you have to go a mile backwards so that you can move forward on another path. On top of that we have due dates for this and that in every class that we have. What if we miss an exam day? Some teachers are not all that lenient. Or what if you did not know something was due a certain day. Everyone is going to college now a days, so C's and D's aren't always going to cut it. Most jobs want you to have a 3.0-plus GPA. I am in honors college and to stay in it I have to have a certain GPA per year. We put thousands upon thousands of dollars into college which puts so much pressure on students to do well.

This is college though and you are supposed to mess up and choose wrong sometimes, so that when you choose right you know it and appreciate it. So OK adults you may have to pay bills, but usually you have a steady job, a routine, and a life partner already. Teenagers are alone trying to navigate through a huge ocean of questions and responsibilities.