My time at college was enlightening to experience. A drastic change from high school where you are amongst a sea of hormonal teenagers who did not want to be there most of the time. Here I found like-minded people who wanted to learn and were more comfortable with being themselves and not caring about what others might think. My classes challenged me to think outside the box and encourage me to not only speak up about my opinions but also showed me that they were valid thoughts that other people wanted to hear and contribute to. I can definitely say that my time helped me grow a lot and I am grateful for it. However, looking back there are some things that I wish I did or did more of before my time there ended. (Note: I attended college pre-Covid, so some of these options might be a bit different for you, but a good amount of them have adapted to the conditions and can be done virtually.)
1) Took Advantage of the Career Center
Now that I am out of school and going through the ups and downs of applying for jobs, I realized how beneficial it would have been to use the career center to my advantage. In fact, after a whole year of struggling to find work I reached out to them and managed to get help with updating my resume and found this internship writing for Her Campus. The positive is that even after graduating you can still request their services and get help with finding job openings, practicing mock interviews, take job assessments to see what field you might be best in if you do not have an idea of what you want to do already, and even get help setting up your LinkedIn account. If I did all this before I graduated I probably could have had a better direction when applying for jobs and probably missed out on some great opportunities because I did not realize how helpful all this is.
2) Made Deeper Connections with Friends from Class
There were a lot of great people that I met in classes with who I had lots of fun and great conversations. For almost every class I took, at least one person I connected with and made even some of the more boring classes bearable. Yet, because of my social anxiety, I never tried to take those friendships outside the classroom. To me, I had it in my mind that it was too pushy if I were to ask if someone to hang out off-campus, that I would sound too desperate, or that they probably were already happy with the friends they already had and were just talking to me because we had that class in common. I was so inside my own head about this and the fear of being turned down but that fear also prevented me from making lasting friendships during my time there. However, if I least tried who knows, maybe I would have had more fun times with them, and even if they said no I at least know that I tried.
3) Made Time to Improve my Mental and Physical Wellness
During this time, I thought that the best way for me to unwind from the stress of classes, papers, and midterms was to binge-watch Netflix and treat myself to some good food. They worked at the moment but it was only a temporary fix and I would usually end up feeling less productive. My stress levels would get so bad that it would take a toll on me physically to the point where I experienced extremely low energy levels, stomach pain, and nausea so bad that I could only stomach Gatorade and Saltine crackers. I had numerous medical tests done because doctors wanted to rule out having appendicitis and gallbladder problems but after everything came back fine I realized that it was in fact my stress and anxiety that was causing me all of this pain. Exercise proves to help relieve stress and anxiety by releasing endorphins in the brain that helps boosts your physical and mental energy. Basically, if your body feels good, so will your mind. Maybe I would have felt better if I had taken a yoga class (which you can take at WCU, or even if I just dedicated a certain amount of time in the day to devote to exercise or meditation. Anything that would have helped me in the long run with both reducing stress and improving my health.
These are the three of the biggest things I wish I did before graduating, maybe some of them resonated with you or maybe you never even thought about them. That is because everyone’s college experience is different. Some people look at it as the time to be more social and party while others might look at it as a more academic experience that will prepare them for their future. Either way, I hope that sharing this can be of some help for anyone who reads this. So, enjoy your time here, and be sure to have as few regrets as possible before it is over.