When I think back to the beginning of my freshman year, I remember feeling like senior year was a lifetime away. It felt like my college years were some type of constant, like year after year I would just continue the motions of being a student at Sacred Heart.
It never occurred to me all the emotions that would come with graduating college and the feelings of uncertainty and bittersweetness.
With graduation being less than two months away, I feel like it is appropriate to write a letter to my freshman self and give advice to all the things I wish I knew from the beginning using everything I have learned during my four years of college.
Hopefully this can help out a freshman who is having a rough time adjusting or just inspire any underclassmen. At the least, I hope it makes everyone appreciate these few years that really do fly by.
1. Everyone is feeling the same way as you are, some people just hide it better than others. I remember during the beginning of freshman year feeling so lost and alone. It seemed like everyone else around me had everything together and I was the only one who felt these feelings. Four years later, everyone I have talked to admits that they felt the same emotions, but a lot of people were too afraid to show it so they just made it seem like they were having the time of their lives. (Do not worry–you will eventually have the time of your life, but if it does not come automatically, do not stress!)
2. This takes me to my next point. People only post the best parts of their college life on social media. If other people’s Instagram pictures or Snapchat stories are not the same as what you are experiencing, do not feel bad about yourself. People are not going to post themselves crying in their bed that they are homesick at 12 a.m., but trust me, they have felt it at some point too. Do not compare your life to other people’s social media posts because a lot of what is behind those pictures is not real.
3. Get involved. It is super important to try everything and go to everything until you find what interests you. The last thing you want to do is sit in your room bored while life is happening around you. You will meet your lifelong friends by getting involved in different clubs and organizations, all while making everlasting memories.
4. Take pictures and videos of everything. You do not have to post them all, but just save them so you can look back on them. Whether it is eating ice cream with your friends on a random Tuesday or going out on a Friday night, you will cherish these photos when you look back. Capture everything because you will want to remember it all and will love looking back and laughing at all the moments you had over the years.
5. Enjoy living life with your best friends. There is no other time in your life that you will be able to live with your friends and be this young and carefree. You will miss the small things, like eating dinner together every night and sitting in each other’s rooms gossiping all night, to the big things, like celebrating birthdays. Living with a group of people the same age as you with little to no responsibilities is something that will only happen when you are a college student.
Laugh off the dysfunction and let things go because before you know it, you will be a senior wishing that you were back in the dorms, where your biggest worry was budgeting your dining dollars so that you did not run out before the end of the semester.
