If you have any guidebook or how-to for freshman year, throw it away right now.
In the space of nine months, I fell in love with Chacos, learned a new language (Southern English, a different breed than its Midwestern cousin), went to a bar for the first time, made friends and lost them, had my heart broken and learned what it really felt like to be homesick.
I wasn't prepared for any of it, but as someone who used to hate surprises, I'm glad.
There are people who will tell you what friends to make or where to sit at football games--or, more accurately, stand. They will say you should take geology because it's easy or that you shouldn't try out for this club and that one because you don't want to overload yourself.
Don't pay attention to any of it.
The beauty of college is the chance to start over, to make your own mistakes and learn from them. What's right for me or your Camp War Eagle counselor isn't necessarily what's right for you, and there's nothing wrong with that.
Don't let football predictions or what looks like a tough course load keep you from enjoying every game and acing every test. Have confidence in yourself and faith in your team, and if you--or they--stumble and fall on the way, know getting back up will make you that much stronger.
I'm supposed to use this space to tell you what to expect in the fall, but to me, that feels like cheating. I won't talk about sporting events or classes or the best place to study (hint: it's not always the library), but I will leave you with a few words of advice.
Find friends who genuinely care about you, even when you're not at your best. Don't trust the people who don't. Sign up for a thousand different clubs, and if you're overwhelmed, weed out the ones that don't make you happy. Expect teachers who never learn your name, but expect some who do. Expect to pull an all-nighter and hate yourself for it the morning after, but give yourself a break, because you'll never be the only one.
Push yourself out of your comfort zone. Sign up for organic gardening if it sounds cool, even though you've never even planted a flower. Put yourself out there - everyone else wants to make friends just as badly as you do. Have fun. Don't take yourself seriously. If you lived life without making mistakes, you'd never have stories to tell.
It took me months to get over the homesickness, and losing friends is never fun. But the difficult parts of freshman year only made the great times that much better. My Indiana friends will always mock me for saying "y'all," and they'll never understand my Chacos, but my feet feel great and catching onto Southern lingo only makes me feel that much more at home.
You'll get thrown a lot of curveballs over the next few months, but the best advice I have is to embrace all of them. College won't meet all your expectations, but with luck, it'll exceed them.
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