For starters, there are a lot of things that I would change if I was to go back in time and do it all again. However, that doesn’t mean I regret my college experience or what I have and haven’t done. Being a senior this year and watching all of the freshmen move in, trying to figure out the location of their classes reminded me of when I was new to the whole college life. I am nervous to go out into the real world, but UNH has definitely prepared me for it.
If I could go back to my freshman year, I would change my shy attitude and try new things. Not to say that I didn’t, I mean, I joined a sorority which I never thought I would do, and I signed up for broom-ball as an intramural sport. However, I wish that I could say I signed up for way more than that. I wish I went outside of my comfort zone and joined more clubs or at least tried them out. I’ve always been interested in kayaking and hiking and at UNH, there is a club for everything.
I would also change my mindset of not letting other people’s thoughts get in the way of what I want. It took me over 20 years, and almost all of my college experience to realize that if there is something that I want and that makes me happy, then I should go for it. Having a completely different mindset on that idea changed my happiness. I feel more confident and much happier today than I ever have. Not to be confused with being a completely selfish human being, but in my eyes, I think that everyone should be a little selfish and understand that whatever makes them happy, they should go after. When people told me not to care about what other people think, it took me a while to actually absorb that and put it in effect. In all, don’t base all of your decisions thinking about how it will affect everyone else and if they’re going to be okay with it. Sometimes you have to put yourself first and do what you want to do.
Those are two life lessons that I have learned and will be taking out into the real world. If I understood and took those concepts with me freshman year, I would have been a lot happier and possibly met more people that enjoyed doing things that I find interesting as well.