With the school year coming to an end, its crazy for freshman to realize that their first year of college almost over. Freshman year is by far one of the most exciting and fun times in life. After eight long months, you’re leaving with a plethora of new experiences that you’ll cherish for a lifetime. Along with that, you’ve been able to learn many valuable lessons about yourself, others, and the realities of growing up. Below is a list of common lessons freshmen learn by the end of the year:
1. Friends from move-in week won’t be your friends forever.
 Going into college, meeting new people is the most exciting thing, especially when you find friends right at the beginning. The people you met during move-in week and thought you’d become really close with, however, probably won’t become your bff’s for the rest of the year, but that’s okay. In college, you have the opportunity to meet so many new people through a variety of different ways. For that reason, you often find new friends throughout the year that share more interests with you.
2. Freedom is the greatest privilege.
Even though you may be sad to leave home, that’ll soon fade away. In college, you have so much freedom that it tends to be overwhelming. If you don’t want to go to class, no one’s going to force you to. If you feel like staying out till 3 am, your parents aren’t going to text you to go back to your dorm. Even though it isn’t obvious at first, this kind of freedom is what college is about.
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3. Get to know your professors.
Making the effort to get to know your professors is one of the most helpful tools in college. Your professors are experts at what they’re teaching and if you need help, they’re the best people to ask. On top of that, If your grade is suffering, they’ll be more willing to help you if you’ve shown that you’ve made an effort in the past.
4. You will get sick of the food.
At first, the dining hall doesn’t seem bad at all. You’ve got a ton of new food options to try out, but soon enough, it gets old. After a few weeks, you’ll start craving your mom’s home cooked meals again and you’ll begin counting down the days until you get to go back home.
5. College is way more difficult than high school.
Unlike high school, you can’t easily fly by a class by doing nothing or quickly making up your work. Instead, you need to do the assigned readings and spend hours studying for tests if you’re passionate about getting a good grade Also, no one is there to remind you about due dates or to study for test the day before, so keep track of your syllabus and check it weekly.
6. You’re tired all time.
Even though it may seem like you’ve got a lot of free time throughout the week, sleep is hard to get in college. Everyday, you have something different. Sometimes, you’ll stay up late working on papers or studying for an exam. Other days, you may pull an all-nighter watching movies or eating pizza at 3 a.m. with friends and you’ll lose track of the time. There are moments in college when you’ve got to focus or take a night to enjoy yourself, but if you’ve got a free time gap before class to take a nap, take the opportunity to do so before you’re swamped.
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7. It goes by fast.
Before you realize it, the year will be over. In college, there’s something new going on everyday and you are often so preoccupied that you fail to recognize how fast time has passed. At the end of it all, take the time to sit back and enjoy every moment.