Going into your first year of college is made out to be this big adjustment, where you’ll have way more responsibility, pressure, and time t to dictate to what you want to do. It’s moving away from home and learning how to do mostly everything on your own; including the little things like vacuuming or going grocery shopping. When people get ready to go to college, they tend to stress out, feeling like maybe they won’t make friends or that they won’t like their roommate or classes. But even though leaving high school and the comfort of your own home can be terrifying, the change-up to such a new and exciting environment can also be one of the greatest things you can do.
The move into being a first year in college was scary, but everyone figures out their path and their schedule, and it’s astonishing how fast we as humans adjust to new things in our lives.
Transitioning into classes and college life is always a big adjustment, with college counselors and articles agreeing that it takes about six weeks to fully adjust to your new lifestyle. This is definitely true, and once I heard about the time it took, I began to see it on my own. It really does take about six weeks to figure out how to study, what life is like around campus, how to move around in your room and adjust to living in a new place. But the transitioning is easy, and colleges make it so that there are tons of resources, like academic services, your class dean, and your peer mentors that are available in case you’re struggling, or even if you just have a few questions.
Once those six weeks are up, you get into a groove. You’ve made friends, know when your meals are, where your classes are, and how to have fun in your free time. But there are a lot of changes that are going to keep coming your way, including the transition from your first year to your sophomore year. Leaving for your first year of college is very different than coming into your first year. For a lot of people, they feel as though they’ve finally fully settled into living away from home and they have their routines set and memorized. So the idea of having to move out, and then back in, a couple of months later to a whole new building with an entirely different schedule is daunting. The changes that are happening in college are much faster than they were in earlier years, and that more rapid-fire change can be as equally intimidating.
But, neither change is something that you should stress out about. The move into being a first year in college was scary, but everyone figures out their path and their schedule, and it’s astonishing how fast we as humans adjust to new things in our lives. This is the same with moving out, and transitioning to sophomore year. Although it may seem tough and stressful, it’s nothing you haven’t faced before and it’s completely doable if you relax and understand that change is beneficial, and definitely a positive in your upcoming life.