A letter to my first year (freshman) self:
Dear First Year,
First of all, congratulations. Making it to this momentㅡ the time when you first step on campus as a college studentㅡ is an accomplishment in itself. The struggles of the SATs, proms, and senior projects are finally over; a new world has opened up to you to explore. College is a wonderful, confusing, frustrating, invigorating, brilliant time in your life, and you have four whole years to make every single day a new adventure.
I know you have your doubts. Did I make the right choice coming by here? Am I going to find friends? Can I stay reasonably sane sharing a bathroom with fifty other people? Listen, we’ve all been there. Moments of self doubt are inevitable when changes happen in our lives; it’s how we accept these changes that defines us as who we are.
So, my advice to you is simple: explore. Explore this new place, because very soon you will find yourself calling it home.Take that class you never thought you’d be interested in. Join a club that makes you get out of the dorm. Fail at something; learning how to get back up is the truest of lessons. Be the shoulder to cry on for one of your friends, because I guarantee you’ll need the same when the going gets tough. But most of all, take advantage of every opportunity you’re given here. Your first year of college can define who you will become, so make the most of it.
Take it from me, life is about to change forever (and for the better). Finally, you have the opportunity to discover who you really are. Your time on campus is the one of the only periods in your life when you are completely free to be uniquely you. I encourage you to live these four years free from the stresses of having to know the answers to everything about life (although you can’t use that same excuse with your professors). Take advantage of this period of discover because. Before you know it, you’ll be walking across the stage to your new adventure.
Love,
Margaret