Your freshman year of college is a time in your life that can be incredibly exciting and filled with new opportunities. Before coming to college, you hear about all the fun times ahead, such as meeting your lifelong friends, joining a sorority or fraternity, participating in game days and all things in between. However, no one ever talks about the unknown stresses that come along with a new life at college.
Leaving for college is thrilling for most, getting to experience moving into your dorm and eating in the dining hall for the first time of many. But then your parents leave and now what? You are left to fend for yourself, learn how to live with a new roommate and try to deal with the many unbeknownst stresses that freshman year can bring.
I have learned that college loves to throw things at you at the worst time and especially when you least expect them. When I was a freshman, I won’t lie, I was absolutely terrified to be left alone on a huge college campus. I wasn’t exactly excited to be on my own for the first time. It was intimidating trying to learn how to balance sorority recruitment, making new friends, figuring out what to major in, not to mention learning how in the world to use an air fryer! I can now say an air fryer is something that all freshmen need and if you don’t have one, it’s something you should get.
In my experience, right when I felt I was finally getting settled and into the swing of things, I was hit with something else I didn’t expect. Trying to get football tickets last year was unbelievably stressful. No one really prepares you for how to manage when your account doesn’t work or when you have the wrong password but are trying to login in right on time to beat other students in the lottery. Finding your classes can also be scary, since you are on a humongous campus with so many different buildings. I used Maps when I was a freshman just to try and locate the building I had to find. It was even harder to find the actual classroom once I got there. Even doing your laundry on the machines in the dorms when everyone else is also using them is about the hardest thing in the world. All of these little stresses can hit you at once causing you to feel overwhelmed and almost knocked out by college, not including all the times your helicopter parents call and text you to make sure you’re okay.
This isn’t meant to scare you. It’s really meant to help you know that you aren’t alone in figuring out how to be a new college student. Every single person that comes to college must learn these essential aspects of college, whether they want to or not. I can now tell you, as a sophomore, that it gradually gets easier and better. You understand the campus better, you know exactly when to do your laundry and you finally will get those football tickets. My biggest piece of advice would be to take it one day at a time. It’s the small accomplishments that can help put everything else into perspective. Knowing that, you will achieve it all because even if you were late to your class, at least you can come home and cook food in your air fryer that you now know how to use.
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