With college just ahead for many teens, there can be a lot of uncertainty as to what to expect. This is a little bit of my experience so far.
For some, it’s just around the corner. For others, it’s right on their doorstep. The transition from high school to college is not a matter to be taken lightly. College has almost nothing in common with high school. If you come in expecting everything to work just like high school, you’ll find yourself floundering quickly.
Move-in day is fast approaching (if it hasn’t already happened) for the majority of rising college students and that means facing a lot of unfamiliar territory. Here are just a few of the factors you will face:
- Living away from family
- adjusting to sleeping next to roommates you’ve never met before
- more freedom
- dining halls
- lots of supposed free time
Despite only being a sophomore in college myself, I learned a great deal during my freshman year at George Mason University, located near Washington DC about handling such challenges.
Enjoying your college freshman year requires you to have an open mind. Aside from the obvious such as “go to class” or “unpack your belongings” I found that the easiest thing you can do to acclimate is to talk to people on your floor.
I understand that for some of you that may be a source of anxiety, but there’s a reason this is the first piece of advice I’m offering. At first, chances are the people you talk to will become acquaintances but not yet friends. However, the more you talk to people the easier it is to find common ground. From there you can pick a few acquaintances who share a common bond and form a support group. You’d be surprised just how many freshmen are required to take the same classes and then you end up creating study groups made entirely of people from the same hallway. Even if you don’t need or want a study group, you may find that support group slowly becoming your friends. Trust me on this, you’re definitely going to want and need a few friends to help keep your sanity during finals week.
After settling in, I found myself bored rather quickly on weekends. I usually couldn’t think of anything productive (mini advice: finish your work during the weekdays, you’ll thank yourself on weekends) to do and I didn’t feel comfortable sitting around only killing time with hobbies. That’s when my friends and I started doing things that were, admittedly, a little stupid (but legal!)
- We got off campus and explored the area. How? We started catching buses to the middle of nowhere just to see what we could find
- staying up way too late just to watch low-budget movies and turn them into inside jokes
- and convincing the one person in our group who had a car to drive us to a gas station at 2:00am, so we could get milkshakes.
None of these things enlightened me by any stretch of the imagination nor did they further my long-term goals in any way. Or did they? Who knows? Who cares? So what! I don’t regret a single second I spent with my friends being silly.
The key to using time rather than wasting it is that you must be the one who initiates the act. Even if it feels stupid, silly, pointless, ridiculous, you’d never even consider worth your time; try your best to make everything you do at college an action rather than a reaction.
I am told I will probably never be surrounded by this many people my own age again so go do what college kids do best. Try new things. Most colleges have a fair to showcase all the clubs offered. Go alone or with a few others. It’s also a great place to get free food which is very important to a college person as well.
Clubs in college are not like high school where attendance is taken with hundreds of rules with you mother waiting for you in the after school parking lot. Go to the club meeting and see if you like it. If you don’t like it then you never have to go again. If you like a club then you have found a fun outlet from your academic day and probably a few new friends over time. Don’t sit in your dorm room when literally thousands of people your age are on campus roaming around just looking for a friend with like interests!
You will have days where something tips you over the edge. It could be something as small as stubbing your toe or as massive as a gut-punch like being stood up on a date or a failing grade on your first test.
Don’t let the bad days beat you when you’ve already made it this far. Look around you for a moment on a bad day. Find an anchor of positive thoughts or a friend knowing that this bad day is only temporary. Don’t turn to a bottle or pills or anything that messes with your head. All those things will just trap you with your thoughts and make the day seem worse than it really is. Find that positive anchor and hold on tight until tomorrow. Sure, tomorrow might just be another bad day. So what? For all you know it could be the day when everything becomes clear and all those answers you’ve been looking for become a little more certain.
Very few people our age have a concrete idea of where they’re life is headed. Even if they do, there’s always going to be a stray thought asking, “What if I’m wrong?” Some days you’ll have a hard time finding solutions for your feelings of uncertainty. Some professors are distant, friends are caught up in their own struggles, and your family is miles away.
Just know that its okay to lose yourself in the uncertainty.
Its okay to be unsure of what’s coming next.
It’s okay to have no idea if you’re heading down the right path.
The uncertainty is the best part about college; EMBRACE IT.
—Jake, 19 years old
Rising sophomore at George Mason University
