On the 12th of June, I will be a free woman. Summer vacation will begin and my first year of college will come to an end. And I’d like to think I had a pretty typical freshman year of college. I lived in the residence halls, I ate nothing but dorm food, I didn’t have a car so I walked everywhere or took a bus and I begged my parents for money every other day.
While I am excited to go from frazzled freshman to sophisticated sophomore, I will miss the excitement that was my first year of college. I experienced so many new things, I met so many new people, but most importantly I learned so much. I have learned an immense amount both in and outside of the classroom and it only seems fair to share my wealth of knowledge with the rest of the world.
Here is a list of some of the things that my first year of college has taught me:
College is not like it is in the movies. I’m pretty sure everyone already knows this, but I feel as if it is still really important to mention. While some of the aspects of college life depicted in movies are present, they are not nearly as extreme as they are in Hollywood. No one will peer pressure you to drink or smoke, say no once and they’ll leave you alone. The professors actually care about you and your success. The dorm food is not disgusting but actually pretty good. The RAs are nice and not out to get you.
The freshman 15 doesn’t exist. I’ll be honest, I was quite worried about this when coming into this school year. But it never happened. If anything, I lost weight this year. Now I have no idea if this is the case with everyone or if I’m just extremely lucky. But I’m not complaining.
Be proud of who you are and where you come from. Always. Listen, I still have no idea why but for some reason the Oregonians dislike Californians. At first I didn’t like telling people where I was from. But then it got to a point where it was so annoying that I didn’t even care anymore. People laughed when they found out I like to go to bed before 11 p.m. People made fun of me when the one time I did stay up past 11 p.m. and went to a party I wore a turtleneck. But hey, I’m a Californian who likes to go to bed early and wear turtlenecks to parties. I don’t care what you think, I think I’m pretty cool.
You will miss home for expected, as well as unexpected, reasons. There’s the typical things: family, pets, home cooked meals and not having to take public transportation. Then there are the strange ones. The way the sun comes in through your bedroom window back home, listening to music in my car alone, waking up to the sound of my dog’s footsteps outside my bedroom door, walking outside and checking the mailbox everyday. It’s those little things that we take for granted that we miss the most.
Your priorities will completely change, sometimes not for the better. It’s no secret that I enjoy Game of Thrones, but I would be lying if I said I never skipped class to watch it. While I came into college telling myself that academics should always be put first, I’m leaving with a much different mindset. And I don’t really care, Game of Thrones is just so damn good.
Roommates aren’t your thing. I had never realized how much I had valued privacy until this year where I had to share a room with another person. This was probably the most difficult aspect of college life I had to adjust to. At home, although I live with my parents and younger brother, I still have an entire room all to myself. This year in college, I didn’t have that. There was no space just for me. Nowhere to take solace in when my roommate snored too loud. Nowhere to hide so I could watch The Karate Kid and ball my eyes out when he triumphs in the end.
Having food so easily available is a blessing and a curse. Let’s just say my diet consisted of mainly ice cream this year.
It’s been real freshman year.