It feels like not that long ago, I was moving into my freshman dorm. I remember not feeling that nervous about going to college until move in day. As I was moving everything into my dorm room with my family, it really set in that I was now in college and going to be living in a completely new place. Even though I felt pretty nervous, I knew deep down that living at college was the right decision for me.Â
My freshman year consisted of some ups and downs. There were times where being in college felt great, and there were times where I felt lonely and overwhelmed. Like any other freshman in college, the beginning of freshman year is a big adjustment period. For me, it took a little while before I felt truly comfortable at college. However, throughout my freshman year, there has been a lot that I learned that is helping me finish my freshman year strong.Â
Something that really made a big positive difference for me was switching my major. At the end of first semester, I switched from a biology major to a kinesiology major. As first semester went on, I realized that I was not that interested in biology and did not want to have a career that I would need a biology degree for. I realized that I did in fact want to work towards becoming a physical therapist, and kinesiology was a major that would prepare me better for PT school. I was also very overwhelmed as a biology major; the workload was a big adjustment from high school since I was in three fairly challenging classes at once. While I have some challenging classes as a kinesiology major, this semester felt less overwhelming and some of the classes I found really interesting. I realized that it truly does make your experience a lot better when you are a major that you actually like.Â
Having a routine for myself during the week was also really helpful. I like having a general idea of what I am going to be doing during each day of the week. I feel that I am able to get more work done and feel less stressed when I already know what time I am going to get breakfast and lunch at, when I am going to go to classes, and what gaps between classes I am planning on getting work done during. My routines during first and second semesters were slightly different, but I think it is kind of fun to have a little bit of a different routine each semester.Â
One expectation I had going into college was that I was going to make a ton of friends right away. While some people do meet their group of friends right in the beginning of freshman year, this honestly was not the case for me. I really struggled with this for awhile because I went into college expecting to meet a lot of friends. I also felt pressured to meet a lot of friends and constantly be hanging out with people. As time went on, I realized that I felt like I needed a lot of friends not because I really wanted a lot more friends, but just because I felt like I was expected to have a lot of friends. Once I became okay with being on my own sometimes, I became a lot more happier. Of course I want to meet more lifelong friends in the future, but I am also content with not having a million friends. I have realized that it is way better to have a few quality friends than to have a ton of friends who I cannot truly rely on.Â
Overall, college has been a great growing experience for me. Living on my own for the first time helped me become more independent in a healthy way. I struggled a lot in high school with making even small and fairly unimportant decisions on my own, and after a year of being in college, I have noticed that I have a much easier time with making decisions on my own. I have also become better at not studying for exams last minute, and I have learned about what times during the day I work best at. Even though these may seem like little things, they have an impact on my daily life. So even though my freshman year of college had some ups and downs, it has helped me grow as a person in a positive way.Â
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