You’ve graduated high school.
Congratulations! That’s a big deal. Now you’re off to a new adventure.
College.
That word triggers feelings of excitement for some people and feelings of terror for others.
Freshman year…
That brings a myriad of emotions to mind-fear, excitement, tentativeness and bravery.
Freshman year is awkward and transformative. You’ll never have a year quite like it (hopefully it gets better).
I was the oldest so I didn’t have anyone to give me tips and secrets about surviving college and the onset of emotions that came with the new season.
Think about me as your older sister. Pretend we’re sitting at a coffee shop as I’m telling you some of the things I wished someone had told me.
- You will make friends. RELAX. You are literally living in a society of potential friends. My core group of friends were made up of people from my building, and my classes. I didn’t try to make them be my friends but somehow we all became kinda inseparable. Friends take time, especially the good and deep friendships. So don’t worry if you haven’t found “your people” by day one or day one hundred. You will make friends.
- People can be exciting and exhausting—make sure you give yourself me time. Even if you’re an extrovert being around people all the time can be exhausting! It can be exciting to always have people around, but don’t run yourself ragged trying to keep up with them. It’s okay-even if you’re an extrovert-to have some time by yourself to relax and recharge.
- It’s okay to feel alone. You moved away from home, to a college full of strangers, studying something that without a doubt will be hard work. You’ll allowed to feel alone sometimes. It’s hard. Change is difficult. It’s okay. It’s okay to want to curl up under the blankets and have a good cry about the loneliness and hardships. After a little while though, you need to get up, wipe your tears, and go on with life.
- Don’t join everything and try to do everything. You can’t give your energy well to everything. Everything looks exciting, but you don’t have enough time in the day to do everything. Don’t join anything simply because you are desperate to belong. You’ll end up feeling really overwhelmed, and you’re overcommitted to things that you’re really not very passionate about.
- But join something. Find something you think would interesting, and try it. But only join a few things. It’s better to give a lot of energy to a few things and do them well, then do a lot of things mediocre. Try golf if that sounds interesting. Or drama. You might discover you are good at something you never considered.
Fearless at Heart 