It is 1:07 in the morning and I am sitting at my desk reflecting. I am wearing the sweater that belongs to that one girl I met my freshman year who is now one of my best friends. We finally reached the “we can borrow each other’s clothes” phase. I just said goodnight to my two roommates as we closed off our nightly living room talk. They fulfill me more than they know. I’m now at my desk to prepare for my criminal justice exam on Tuesday. This is the first law-related course that I’ve taken, and so far I am obsessed. To top it all off, my brand new Bath & Body Works candle is burning up and welcoming a great vibe. Everything feels as though it is in place; it feels perfect. The crazy part about all of this is the fact that this is the life I could only dream of as a lost college freshman.
I have a theory that while college is important for the academic lessons you learn, college teaches you about life more than anything. This is the one thing that colleges leave out of their ‘orientation pamphlets’: the adjustment can be difficult. There are some people who came into college with friends or made friends instantly given their extroverted nature, but this isn’t the case for many. When I look back a year ago, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to do with my degree. I was so offset given that everything was so new and felt like it was too much to absorb all at once. I missed my friends, my boyfriend, and my family. There was so much changing when all I craved was stability. With this came feelings of loneliness. All I wanted were some genuine friends who understood me at the core, not the ones that you meet and never see again (which happened a lot). I prayed to God for a sense of direction when it came to my career path because the uncertainty of it all frightened me more than you could imagine. Most importantly, I just wanted to feel at home with where I was in life.
Here’s the thing; once I spoke about it to others who went through college successfully, it never failed that these words flew out of their mouths, “It will get better.” With the number of times I had heard those words, it seemed as if it was just the go-to answer. Almost as if it was their only way of comforting you, but it turns out that there was nothing false about it. It’s true, it does get better. Life has a way of putting you in places where you need to be at the right times, and at the end of it all, it will always work itself out. You’ll be exposed to new things which will invite you to figure out what you like and dislike. You will find out things about yourself that you never knew before, and each time this happens, you are clarifying your own path. The point of college is to figure out who you are at the core. This is what determines what you do, where you go, and what you become. When you’re chasing things that make you happy and staying true to yourself, you get closer to a life you’ll love to live.
It may seem lonely now and you might feel as if the world is too big, but eventually, it’ll shrink. I am now in the second semester of my sophomore year. I finally figured out what career my heart desires, and I’m taking steps toward it every single day. As I said earlier, I am in love with it so far, which tells me that I am on the right track. I am currently in the process of joining a spirit group which is something I had dreamed of, but never had the courage to do. I am still in the organization that brought me my greatest friends (who are now my roommates), and am on the exec board. I have been doing great in school, and have so much to look forward to every single day. To sum it all up, I wake up every single day happy knowing that I finally feel at home.
At the end of it all, always know that no matter what happens, life will figure itself out. As long as you are staying true to yourself, doing things that make your soul happy, and always staying positive, it will get better.