Sometimes our expectations don’t match up with reality. We say this all the time but we don’t always consider how often it is true. This is something we tend to reserve for describing when your Amazon order looks very different from what you thought you were buying, and not so much when our life isn’t the way we thought it would be.
There is a lot of advice for incoming college freshmen to manage their expectations of college. We all know that college is not the four-year party that the movies seem to suggest, so you can expect some great memories, but also a lot of work. Which is cool, since we’re all here for an education (for the most part). Even with the turbulence of freshmen year, by the end of the summer, I was beyond ready to go back to school.
Sophomore year, or any year, can hit you like a swift brick to the face. Between feeling as though you should have everything figured out and not having everything figured out, life can get hard. Freshman year is comforting in that it is your first year. You don’t have to know everything yet or have your life figured out. You’re a freshman. You have time. But something about leaving it makes me, and most people I’ve talked to, feel as though I now have to know everything, be fully adjusted to college life, and have a carefully laid out plan to achieve all of my life plans.
But here is the deal; your entire college career is a transition period. It is okay if you didn’t make your life-long friends freshman year of college. Friendships take time and there is plenty left. It’s okay if you are still figuring out a career path, or even a major. If you haven’t done an internship yet, you still have time, and no matter how much it may feel like it, you are not the only one. If college doesn’t feel like home yet, that’s okay! You haven’t even been here a year yet, it’s not going to be as familiar as your hometown. Just because this is your second year doesn’t mean that the transition back will necessarily be seamless. Because all of college is figuring it out, and we can’t expect to know it all quite yet. It just takes a little time.