As I finish up my sophomore year of college, it’s honestly daunting how I’m basically halfway done, and there are only two more years to go. Sometimes it genuinely feels like I just got here, and I’m still in my freshman year, like how am I almost an upperclassman?! As the eldest sibling who didn’t have someone to ask about the college experience, I’m gonna be your big sister and list the things that I wish I knew freshman year. If you’re starting college soon or just started, listen up!
When I first moved onto campus, I knew one friend from high school, but we weren’t super close at the time. It felt like a fight to make friends. It also seemed like everyone had already found their group. What was worse was that this was all within the first 24 hours of being on campus. The only thing was, it didn’t feel like 24 hours. It felt like a week had gone by, and my friend and I felt super behind. So, this sense of doom kinda fell over us. After freaking out for at least an hour, we took a step back, and really sat down and contemplated. It’s only been 24 hours. Why are we freaking out? Without activities or classes and just trying to get adjusted to a new environment, time moved super slow, and I remember that I was genuinely worried that I wouldn’t adjust to college. Well, guess what? Within a month, I met friends that I’m still super close with today. I’m super close with that friend from high school. There are also a bunch of friendships from the first semester that I’m either distant from or don’t even talk to anymore, and that’s okay! College is the time to meet a bunch of people, and not everyone is gonna be your lifelong best friend. But some will be! Soon your classes will pick up and you’ll find activities that you enjoy, so time will stop moving so slowly. While that first week (or first 24 hours in my case) might seem long and hopeless, and you might feel behind, just know that you’re not alone; there’s a good chance that a lot of the people who seem like they have it figured it out, are probably just putting on an act.
Homesickness was a very prevalent feeling that I experienced during the first month of college. I only moved an hour away, but it felt completely new and scary, and I hated that feeling. Every time I would FaceTime my family, I would miss them and my house and basically everything from my hometown, even things that I didn’t really care about before. I’m here to tell you that it eventually went away, and now my campus is kind of like a second home. Once you find things that feel familiar, like good friends, and get used to the environment, it doesn’t feel bad anymore. It also helped that I was able to go home frequently, since I only live an hour away. People have different opinions about going home frequently, but I say that if you want to be around your family and are close enough to visit them, why wouldn’t you? I stay weekends on campus and experience the events that college has to offer, but I also go home to see my family, and I feel like it’s the perfect balance. You also can’t let homesickness hold you back: I’m trying to take my own advice here, because I chickened out of studying abroad my sophomore year because of the fear of homesickness. However, it’s an adjustment, a new experience, and something that I’ve dreamed of doing since middle school. I’m now trying to go abroad in my junior year. In the end, if you’re letting homesickness hold you back from something, just remember that the feeling of homesickness is temporary, but the regret of not doing something that you wanted to do because of homesickness, will probably feel worse.
The last piece of advice I wanted to put out is to study your curriculum and try to plan out your classes from freshman year! This is especially true if you have a very demanding major, are on a certain track (like pre-med), take on a minor, or plan to study abroad. Certain classes are only offered in certain semesters, some classes you can’t take abroad, some classes you need to take by a certain time period, the list goes on. Instead of stressing about how you’re gonna fit certain classes into specific semesters when you only have four left (totally not speaking from experience), just sit down for like one afternoon and figure it out in your freshman year to save you a headache in your junior year. It can feel daunting, but it’s also cool to see exactly what you’re learning beforehand instead of finding out as you sign up for it.
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