Every day, my friends and I joke about losing our sense of time here at Columbia. On days like today, I look back in awe of how fast time has flown by, while on some unfortunate nights in Butler Library, time seemed to be at an absolute standstill. Regardless, it’s been over a month—or 43 days, to be exact—since my move to New York City, and everything that’s happened thus far seems to have passed by in one big whirlwind. In celebration of my first college midterm season, I decided to do a little reflecting on this crazy time and see how much I’ve changed in the short, or arguably long, time since I first stepped foot on campus.
Before my big move to Columbia, I lived in a small suburb in Los Angeles for almost 10 years. I’ve known my closest childhood friends since I basically first started to talk, so I never felt much of a need to go out of my way to make new friends. However, during NSOP, I soon realized that I didn’t know a single soul on campus, which meant I had to quickly learn how to introduce myself and strike up conversations with strangers. At first, I was completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of people I was meeting every single second of the day, but, as NSOP progressed, I actually found it quite fun to interact with people from all different backgrounds and upbringings. Though I don’t currently talk to a lot of people I met during NSOP, my best friends here at Columbia are those who I befriended at orientation, so I’m overall grateful that college gave me a reason to branch out and make new friends.
Before committing to Columbia, I had heard so many things about the school’s stress culture and the Core’s academic rigor that, to be completely honest, I was scared to start classes. Don’t get me wrong—it’s completely true that Columbia’s academic standards are set pretty high, but what I realized is that everything about the challenge is rewarding. For example, in my Lit Hum class, I’m challenged every day when reading ancient texts that I never would’ve considered reading in my free time, but after each discussion, I feel so much more knowledgeable about the human condition and what it means to embrace academia. I’m sure that classes won’t get any easier as the semesters go by, but I’m now extremely excited to see how much I grow in my classes to come.
Now that you’ve read my personal reflection about my first month here, I want to share, even with my limited first-year knowledge, advice on what made my first month as a college student so great.
- Take advantage of New York City! With free admission to museums and discounted tickets to select shows, the number of affordable activities in New York City is limitless.
- Make time for yourself. College is busy, busy and busy! I always found a lot of comfort in knowing that no matter how busy I am, I set aside 20 to 30 minutes each day to rewind and treat myself to a little Netflix.
- Establish a routine. I found myself a lot less tired and burnt out when I developed a steady routine for sleeping, studying and hanging out with friends.
And most importantly, college is all about taking one day at a time. There will definitely be both good and bad days, but I promise, it’ll only get easier and easier with time.