Before coming to college, the only understanding I had of the so-called “college experience” was through TikTok trends and Instagram posts. Liking posts of crazy tailgates and scrolling through Snapchat stories of people at over-the-top parties, I was ready for college to immediately be the best years of my life. What I didn’t expect were the days I felt homesick or lonely. Going through Instagram and seeing posts of girls who have already met their best friends and explored all of campus within the first two weeks of college can make you feel like you’re doing something wrong. But I promise you — you’re not.
In a generation that is centered around social media, it can be hard to differentiate what’s real from what’s just a really good photo. With access to an overwhelming amount of staged content, it’s understandable to find ourselves disappointed when our life doesn’t align with what others are posting. Social media has become an environment solely reserved for people to post about the best moments of their life, without acknowledging how unrealistic it is for every moment of our lives to be perfect. The lack of social media transparency about adapting to college creates this false perception that once you get to college, everything is supposed to be drastically better than high school.
It needs to be acknowledged that moving into college is a lot of change at once: finding a way to schedule work, club meetings, making friends, and going out is exhausting. But no one posts about their bad days. No one talks about the days when you feel incredibly overwhelmed and miss the familiarity of home. These feelings of being uncomfortable are just as much a part of the “college experience” as the exciting moments we typically post about.
It can be easy to forget that all college freshmen are on the same page. Even if no one is saying it, we’re all feeling a little out of place. There isn’t anything wrong with you for missing the comfort of being with your hometown friends, or if you haven’t found your best friends on campus yet. Just because people are posting with all their new college friends doesn’t mean they don’t also miss home.
As a first-semester freshman in college, I’ve come to understand that the college experience has just as many uncomfortable moments as good moments. College isn’t always going to be fun frat parties and cute cafes. Sometimes, the college experience is staying in on a Friday night to recharge your social battery. Behind every aesthetic restaurant photo is a not-so-aesthetic commute on public transportation to get there, and there’s nothing wrong with that!
Once we normalize the imperfections of getting situated, we’ll stop being so hard on ourselves and finally start enjoying the real college experience.
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