Let’s not pretend that starting college isn’t one of the most overwhelming, and frankly pretty terrifying experiences of your life! You have been used to living at home, attending high school and being a big fish in a small pond, before suddenly becoming a very small fish in a gigantic pond! It is a time of adjustments and one of the biggest transitions you tend to go through during your life. However, it really does become the blueprint for the rest of your life. Here are some examples.
Family is more than blood
Being thrust into such an intense experience it is no wonder that, for a lot of us, the friends we make at college become like family very quickly. Strangers become friends, and then basically family – and this is something that will happen throughout your life. We find our people and grow with them, and sometimes, even apart from them. College teaches us just how close you can be to some people but that the concept of family can be fluid.
Your path is never set
As Robert Burns said, “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry”, and this is true for us all. As much as you might think you have your life all planned out, things can change in a heartbeat. College might show you that your major isn’t what you want your career to be, or the place you planned on settling down isn’t for you after all. You will learn that plans are made to be changed as we ourselves change, and you need to be open to this.
Learn who you are
For some of us, college is the time when we relax a little and allow ourselves to let things go for once. It is a time for resting boundaries and seeing how we manage life without the constant guidance from our parents. We make mistakes and find out things about ourselves that we will take into the next stage of our lives. This is an extremely important learning curve throughout college life.
The best days are not over
It is depressing to constantly be told that things are all downhill after college, and when you have had this drilled into you so much, it begins to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can choose to succumb to this life, or you can make a conscious effort to make every year better than the last. Sure, college is an amazing time. You have enough freedom to explore, but you also have space to make mistakes without as many consequences as you will have in the future. That being said, your life is going to change after graduation, and that doesn’t have to be a bad thing! You decide.
It is evident that college really does set you up for the rest of your life. A lot of things you learn during those formative years will come back in your future, and you will better know how to handle things. This will probably be a subconscious thing, but it is certainly real – college is a blueprint for the rest of your life, so bring it on!
