Freshman Year. The year that means new opportunities, new scenery, new people,  new discoveries and new findings. The year you spend all senior year and summer preparing for, not knowing that all the preparation in the world won’t prepare you for the next nine months you’re about to experience.
Freshman year.
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Freshman year taught me about relationships.
During high school, I had two best friends. The three of us never had to question each other’s loyalty. We never really had any fallouts because we understood each other. We became sisters. I never really had to form new relationships with people because I had my two. When I came to college, my best friends obviously weren’t here. Having to start all over again finding new and true friends was a process. I had to learn to be very careful when it comes to getting close to people. Not everyone is a meant to be your friend, a lot of friends isn’t always better and not everyone understands the loyalty and respect that comes with friendships. I also had to remember how to be a good friend to others. Nonetheless, it taught me the value of true friendships and I’m grateful for it.
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Freshman year taught me the importance of my mental health.
Being all the way from Texas, it is very rare that I get to go home as often as people from North Carolina, Maryland, etc. Managing my mental health was something very important that I had to take seriously because I couldn’t just go home every other weekend to get a break. I had to learn to pray, take breaks whether that meant taking a day off from classes, sleeping in, or removing myself from toxic people to prevent certain situations, etc. Once I did that, life and my mental health started getting better.
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Freshman year taught me to be appreciative of the relationship I have with God.
Before coming to college, I had become very close to God. Closer than I thought I would ever get. However, in college, freshman year taught me to appreciate the relationship I do have. My relationship with God has taught me patience in difficult times. Calmness in heated situations and positivity in the negativity. I’ve also noticed how much God has been talking to me and giving me signs when it comes to certain situations and people. Knowing that some people in college and especially at Hampton, don’t have as close a relationship with God that I have makes me grateful and appreciative.
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Lastly, one of the most important things freshman year taught me was that I am unique and different.
In high school, I thought I was doing all these things and I was different from the rest of the people I went to high school with, which I was. However, when I got to Hampton, it seemed like everyone was doing all these things, everyone was unique and different and everyone was pretty much like me. I thought at the beginning of the year that I was no longer unique. During my second semester, I started to realize that I still am different. I have certain qualities about myself that do set me apart from most people. I have certain talents that do set me apart from other people. When I realized that, then my purpose here at Hampton started to become clear. Hampton taught me that in a room full of talented and educated black people, I still stand out.
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Freshman year was a long ride but along the way, I learned more than just what I was taught in my classes. Freshman year taught me about myself.
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