“The only source of knowledge is experience,” Albert Einstein. College is a time when you will not only gain knowledge from a textbook, but from the many experiences you will go through during your time in school. Being fluent in Spanish and able to solve complex equations is great to pass your tests, but the real knowledge you will use throughout your life cannot be learned from a recorded lecture. Here are 20 things I’ve learned in college so far!
If a decision seems like a risk, it’s probably the right decision. You’ll be faced with deciding between staying home with your friends for college, or taking the risk to move across the country where you know nobody. Going out of your comfort zone is the only way to see what else is out there that you could be experiencing. Risks are scary, but risks are rewarding.
Coming in to college you will think you have an idea of the path you want to take, but it won’t work out. You will fail the calculus class, you will get rejected from your major, and you won’t get in to the sorority. Everything you thought would come easy will end up being your greatest obstacle, but you have to learn to work through those failures.
It is going be devastating when the thing you worked so hard on doesn’t end up working out. Being upset and angry at first is natural, but you have to get over it, fast. Nothing good will come of dwelling on failure, but something good will always come of the step you take to overcome the obstacle.
Being strong does not mean you have to max out on leg press. Strength is found in your ability to deal with situations that will test you mentally. Will you drop the class after doing poorly on the first test? Will you let the boy who won’t text you back keep you up at night waiting? You have to be strong enough to stand on your own and continue to move forward, even when it seems almost impossible.
You’re going to be alone, a lot, and that’s okay. Be able to get dinner by yourself. Be able to go watch a movie on your own. You don’t need someone by your side 24/7 to get things done. Mom isn’t there to call and make your appointments. Independence is one of the most important things you will gain when you go to college.
Even though it’s important to figure things out on your own, don’t let your pride keep you from asking for help. It’s okay to fail, but it’s not okay to continue to fail at the same thing repeatedly. Go to office hours and ask to go step-by-step on the problem you get wrong every test. Ask the maintenance guy to help you out when you can’t get the spoon out of the garbage disposal. Every problem has an answer that somebody out there knows.
Although you and your mom used to fight about any and every little nonsensical thing in high school, you will miss hearing her voice. Whenever you have news, big or small, she will be excited to hear it. Ace your test? Awesome! Cook a real, nutritional meal? Amazing! Taking just a small amount of time each day to reach out, even if it’s just to gossip over the tabloids about Kim Kardashian, makes everything seem like it’s going to be okay.
As you get older, so does the rest of your family. Your annoying little brother is now a high school football player who listens to the same music as you. Your sister who used to steal your clothes is asking to borrow your dress for homecoming. Going away will make the changes everyone goes through more noticeable when you take a trip home. Suddenly the obnoxious kids you couldn’t stand in high school are real people you can relate to, and that’s pretty cool.
Always stuck to a certain group of people in high school? Well that is not a wise decision in college. While it’s easy to gravitate towards the people who are similar to you, making friends with those who are not can lead to the best friendships. Find people who are passionate about something, even if it’s something you may not be familiar with. Quirky people are one in a bunch, and are the ones you will find yourself having the best time with.
In high school it’s easy to have the same friends from kindergarten through graduation, but in college most of your friends will come and go. You and Ana may have been best friends when you lived in the same dorm, but now that you live in an apartment a mile away Ana doesn’t come around much. Be able to adjust to the idea that not every friend you have will be your friend for life.
Along with the temporary place holder friends are the friends that will stay. These are the friends that even though you don’t live next door to them anymore, still find their way around. This is the high school friend you text everyday and Facetime on the weekend, because you both still can’t wait to tell each other everything going on in your life. When convenience is no longer the driving force of a friendship, you find the people who are real friends.
BRL is a common phrase thrown around in college, and it is extremely relevant. The boy won’t like you back. You’ll find out he has a girlfriend. He’ll stop texting you. College boys aren’t going to write you love letters, but they will write you at 2 am to come over and chill. Being upset over a boy won’t make them like you, and it will only give you unnecessary drama and stress.
College is a place where you will find the widest range of people with varied beliefs. There will be people who pray before every meal and people who don’t believe in a single god. Some people will study weeks before a test, and others will look at the study guide as they walk to class. You don’t have to think like anyone else, but you do have to accept the fact that everyone doesn’t think like you.
It’s perfectly fine not to agree with the decisions that the people around you make, but what’s not fine is judging them for those decisions. Just because you would rather get to bed early and your roommate would rather go out to a party does not make you better than them, and judging them will not make their decision change. All you are doing is wasting your own time and energy.
Almost always you will find that your first impression about someone is wrong. You’ll have more in common with the “weird girl with blue hair” than the girl who wears the same shoes as you. The roommate you thought would be a stuck up party girl will be the one who picks you up from class so you don’t have to walk home in the dark. You will meet people for the first time on the worst day of their life, and end up becoming their best friend.
Everything about you will change. You’ll start doing your hair different, wear a different style of clothes, and think differently on views you had. As you experience new things and become exposed to ideas you never thought about you will grow tremendously as an individual. You find yourself no longer a child who goes along with whatever you’re told, but mature enough to make decisions on your own.
There are going to be people who want you to go against what you believe in t0 be a part of something. You’ll watch the people you thought you shared the same values with throw away their beliefs to fit in. You’ll have to give things up and let go of those people, but you’ll find there are people who respect you more for what you did.
Stressing out about something? Ask yourself, “will it matter in five years?” Most likely the answer will be no, and you will move on. In the moment missing an assignment, breaking up with your boyfriend, losing your wallet, will all seem like the end of the world. Will it matter in five years? No. Take the L and move on.
Of course there are situations that you should take seriously, but almost every bad situation can be made better as a joke. When you can laugh at the dumb and embarrassing things you did, you will find that you are living a much more enjoyable life. People will enjoy being around you when they are going through something rough, because you can turn their situation from dark to light with your perspective.
In just the year and a half that I have been in college, I’ve learned more about myself and about life than in the 17 years before. There’s limitless amounts of knowledge to be gained at your fingertips if you open yourself up to it. And though I know there’s many more risks, failures, and changes to come in my life, I look forward to it all.
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