Advice to First Semester Freshmen

Oh my God... the first semester of my freshman year is over and I'm now 1/8 through with college. I am going to spend two years less here than I did at Whitney and just thinking back to how little time Whitney was for me, I can't imagine this being over so quickly as I embark into the real world and become a full fledged person that can shop, clean, and be independent for the first time, truly. It's so terrifying. Oh my goodness, I'm so scared. But I'm also pretty excited to have full agency over my life and what I want to do with it. But let's focus on freshman year, shall we? Let's not get ahead of ourselves too much.

1. Don't take yourself so seriously. My gosh, you're a freshman!!! Upperclassmen call you a baby for a reason. You're beginning to figure out what it feels like to fly. That doesn't mean in the slightest sense that you should jump headfirst from your nest and pray to God you got the idea down. You should be testing out how you like your wings and how to move them around so you catch the wind instead of just telling yourself that you have wings and they're now fully functional because you're suddenly so eager to leave the nest. Don't take every difficult class under the sun, or join every club, or meet every person. Chill for a second and let yourself breathe. Let yourself enjoy the newfound freedom and the new place you're in. Let yourself explore and be a little spontaneous before life becomes a little more serious.

2. You're not the finished product yet. Don't expect yourself to have a handle on everything. You literally came to college to learn, so that in no way means that you should be at college thinking that you should know every math equation, every business model, and every history fact known to humanity. You're still learning and you came to college to further your knowledge about the world and to accrue more experience. High school was not enough time for you to understand the world completely, how to do your taxes, how to find a house, how to get groceries on your own (okay maybe this one you should know a little more about), how to efficiently and intelligently practice self care... You're a work in progress still. Treat yourself as such. Don't set your bar of expectations so high that you can't even reach it to begin with. Know your limits and understand that you are allowed to make mistakes. And actually quite frankly, that last part goes for life beyond college too. Make sure you understand that you CAN make mistakes and that one mistake/failure does not mean the end of the world as you know it.

3. Don't be a job whore. For my fellow Whitney-ites, we all have heard the term "college whore." For those of you who are slightly offended at this term, let me explain. At our high school, a "college whore" was someone who joined clubs and indulged in activities solely for the sake of their college application and resume. They never did anything because they liked it. Every single one of their actions was centered around this "higher goal" of college and all the perks that came with it, usually to be accepted to an Ivy. I came to college somehow thinking that wouldn't be the case because we had now achieved what high schoolers had worked for during the last 4-6 years. Nope. I came to college and realized that lens was just translated to our future job rather than our future school. But now we have a name for that: pre-professional. There are so many "pre-professional" opportunities and clubs surrounding us. I'm not saying all of them are bad. I'm a person who really trusts and believes in intention. If you're joining to get a feel for that field, to figure out what you like, or to try it out and make mistakes to learn, great! Go for it! But if you're joining these clubs to pad your resume and to go with the current that your college has begun, I would recommend considering otherwise. Join clubs and classes YOU like and that you are in LOVE with or try to explore and learn what you love. I still stand by the idea that you should not know what your life is like during minute 0, but I do think that you should do things because YOU want to and not because of peer pressure or societal expectations.

4. Pursue what you love. A lot of what I've been hearing here is that people just decided to go into Economics and then Wall Street because they can't find anything else and they want to make money fast. Money will only make you happy for so long until you get burnt out and have the sudden and terrifying realization that you aren't really doing what you want. If you truly want to go to Wall Street because you love that type of work, I'm so happy for you. But if your intentions are to work on Wall Street because you have no other passion, I'd reconsider and do some soul searching.

5. Don't compare. I could write an entire blog post on this but I'll include it here. Don't compare yourself to other students and what they're doing. Don't shut your eyes and ears off completely to everyone else around you but don't feel discouraged because you aren't as "successful, intelligent, social, studious, musically talented, financially stable, etc." Don't let these adjectives define you and make you feel inferior. Sure they might be better than you in one aspect or the other, but also understand that we are each all different and that we come from highly different backgrounds. You can't expect yourself to always be better or even the same level. Some people may have had an unfair advantage to no fault of anyone. They might have been born into a family from a richer area with a higher level of college education. They might have parents who are engineers who can help them with math. I can write a lot of "what if's, might's, should's, can's" but bottom line is that they are different and you DO have your own strengths. You DO have an "unfair" advantage somewhere that you have to tap into. You have your own unique abilities and background - learn how to use it and to make it the best for yourself.

6. Don't knock it till you try it. Try everything. But be safe.

7. Have fun. It's college. You've been waiting for this moment essentially your whole life so far. Have fun.

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