Your first year of college can definitely feel like a huge curveball thrown at you, but it really is one of the best years of your life. You come to learn so much about yourself, and find out what you do and don’t enjoy. In your first year of college, you get to learn so many new and valuable life skills that you will carry with you for the rest of your life.
1. You become more confident and out-going than you were in high school.
College is a scary new place that has so many fresh faces from all over the place. You might have been shy in high school, but, once you start getting in the grove of how college works and meeting new people every day, you start to come out of your shell and gain confidence.
2. Getting to know new people is so much fun.
Speaking of getting to know new people, you come to enjoy meeting new faces and getting to know them. Not only is it enjoyable to learn about them, but ten years from now they could still be your best friend!
3. Despite the well-known stigma that it’s impossible to be best friends with your roommate, it is actually possible.
You hear it all the time that you should not be best friends with your roommate, because of the potential that a small disagreement over something such as where the TV needs to go could tear apart your friendship. Those kind of things do happen, but your friendship could flourish if you learn to communicate with them and come to a compromise rather than fight over something so minute.
4. Being more independent is scary, but it’s definitely okay because you learn how to take care of yourself.
Your first year is most likely the first time that you have ever been on your own – away from your parents and everything you know. You quickly learn that you have to go and get more laundry supplies when you’re out, and that you are totally responsible for you and your wellbeing. Even though that part can be scary, you are learning how to take care of yourself and are getting to learn what being independent is truly about.
5. You learn a lot about yourself that you already didn’t know.
Through the entire process of becoming more confident, outgoing, and independent, you come to learn things about yourself that you didn’t realize you had in you the whole time. From small things like learning how to do your own laundry, to finding out about what you really want to do with your life, it’s all new and exciting to you.
6. You learn what study habits work for you.
It’s a quickly found-out fact that the study habits you had in high school most likely will not work for college classes. It’s not all worksheets and one chapter tests anymore. You find out that you have to put way more time into your studies because you are investing in your future.
7. Sleep is so important, and it shouldn’t be ignored.
It’s a huge stereotype that college kids hardly get any sleep between juggling work, homework, and social life. When learning how to balance all that out you lose a lot of sleep, you quickly come to realize how important getting a good night’s sleep is and make it a priority.