College is notorious for its expensive tuition, but no one warned you about all the things you would learn beyond the textbooks. You are exposed to the good and the bad when you throw yourself into such a new, unfamiliar environment. The following are 10 harsh lessons no incoming freshman was prepared for.
First, you learn pretty quickly that distance puts a heck of a wedge in relationships. It’s up to you to remain close to whoever you have back home.
And soon after welcome weekend you find out that not everyone you meeet is a true friend. College is an adjustment for everyone and the harsh reality is that some people aren’t who they seem to be.
You feel really lonely at times, but that’s the expense of moving away. You’re on your own now, and that means it’s up to you to tell yourself to remain positive when you’re having a really bad day.
You’re going to screw up in school, relationships, and simple “adult” things, but screwing up is okay! After all, you’re new at this. You learn messing up is a natural part of life and that mistakes shouldn’t consume your thoughts. Move on from those slipups and grow as an individual.
Stress is inevitable. You can’t escape it, so you have to figure out how to handle stress in a healthy way. That’s easier said than done.
Through all the hardship you realize how amazing family is! You discover this newfound appreciation for your parents. They really do want the best for you and going away to college makes that easier to see.
You also realize that you’re turning into your mom. That’s difficult for some people to accept.
It becomes clear that the “nerds” will come out on top. Their study habits and work ethnics pay off in the end. You should befriend one. Learn from one. Become one. In college you’re a small fish in a big pond and amazing grades will help you stand out.
A semester into college, you figure out how to balance your responsibilities and your freedom. You learn that you can’t afford to party all the time because your workload is too heavy. It’s funny, you mature more your freshman year of college than you did over all four years of high school. Congrats you’re becoming an adult.
In addition to everything else, you’re exposed to an unexplainable reality. That is that not everyone is going to like you. You might not even do anything to those people, but they just won’t like you. Simple as that. Some people are going to try to put you down because something about you bothers them. By ‘something’ I mean a characteristic that you can’t, and probably shouldn’t, change. Don’t’ let those people win. Quite possibly the most important lesson you can learn your freshman year is that you’re awesome, and no one has the right to make you feel any other way! So, you be you and just work it!