It’s crazy for me to believe that fall of next year I’ll be graduating from college. It kind of makes me a bit sad. I have done so much and it’s sad that it’s gonna come to an end. Looking back I think about all the things that I could have done that would have made me better. For example, there are so many things that I wish I could tell myself from when I was a freshman in college. For starters, I was 17 when I graduated from high school and started college. I didn’t turn 18 till one month after being in college. So I had to grow up/mature pretty fast. It wasn’t easy.
I remember my very 1st day of college like it was yesterday. I was super excited and ready for my classes. I remembered that I had 3 classes from 8:00 am till 12:15 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays. I had 8:00 am class and 2:00 pm class on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I should have thought twice about what to wear for my first day. I wore a homecoming shirt from my senior year of high school with black jeans and my hair in a high ponytail. So yes, I still looked like a high schooler on my first day and I thought I was looking cute. Looking back I say to myself what was I thinking.
I did struggle trying to find the building for my last class for that day and yes I had to ask someone. Overall, my first day wasn’t too bad.
Looking back at what happened all of my freshman year, there are so many things that I wish I could have told myself.
1. Don’t be afraid to say no: Why? In college, you are busy 24/7. You have classes, homework assignments, exams to study for, weekly meetings, study groups, etc. Sometimes you are not able to hangout with your friends due to busy schedule.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help: I’m still struggling with this to this day. I’m talking mentally and with class work. As you read in my blog post about my mental health, I still go to counseling to get help to reduce my stress and anxiety with classes because all day everyday I get so stressed out and that wasn’t healthy for me. Asking for the teachers for help isn’t a bad thing. I learned that’s why teachers have office hours. You can go to their office for help. To be honest, I’ve always been so afraid to go. Why? It feels so intimidating and I just don’t want to feel like I’m being dumb asking about an assignment that I don’t understand.
3. Don’t try to look for a boyfriend: Honestly, for me it can wait. I had to learn the hard way on my own. I made that mistake one time my freshman year by having a crush on a guy in one of my classes and it ended up going horrible for me. But hey I was 18 back then. I get it that there are so many cute guys on campus. I'm still young and finding someone can wait even though sometimes I do feel like I can’t wait, but I can.
4. Avoid the Freshman 15: Freshman 15 is so real. Why is it the Freshman 15? You gain 15 pounds your first year of college. You would eat from the union, at campus events where there are free food, your dorm room food, etc. Learn how to maintain what you eat and go to the gym and workout.
5. Don’t procrastinate: I’m still guilty of doing this even though I have a calendar and a reminder of my assignments. The way I’m learning is that if I do the assignments now and get it out the way, I get to have that free time I need.
6. Don’t try to be perfect: I struggle with this the most. I try to be so perfect to please everyone. Especially my parents. I want to make them extra proud of me. Sometimes there be days where I feel like I’m not doing enough. I have to deal with maintaining my image of who/what I am by being this “Miss. Perfect”. No one in this world is perfect.
These are my main factors. There are a lot more. If I could tell that to myself from my freshman year, everything would be totally different. Everyone’s path in college is different, but we are all working to get that degree.
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