Prom dress decisions and driver’s license tests aside, anticipating college was hands down the most stressful thing about high school. Throughout my entire life, the concept of “college” was always hanging around as what seemed like the most important thing I could ever possibly do. From my parents, I was hearing about how the four years of college are the best four years of your life. In the media, college was depicted as one ongoing party full of relationships and edgy activities. From my own friends experiencing it, college was the hardest thing they had ever done up to that point in their lives.
By the end of senior year, I couldn’t distinguish what to expect from my own experiences from the monster of an idea college had become. After facing (almost) my first semester, however, I can finally give my own input on the myths that surround college culture. Here are a few discoveries I’ve made:
Fact: You definitely lose more sleep
Whether it’s watching a hilarious Vine compilation with your roommate or catching up on reading, 10:00 P.M. goes to 1:00 A.M. amazingly quickly in college—not to mention that no one is there to tell you to go to bed. Even though you’re losing more sleep than you’re used to, it’s typically easy to find time to make it up. I’m totally convinced naps were invented for college students.
Fiction: The work is impossible
When you hear students and adults talk about college, they often make it sound like the work is so impossible no one in history has ever achieved graduating. While the workload and level of difficulty are significantly higher than high school (and at times extremely daunting), it all ends up okay in the end. Professors are more lenient with deadlines than high school teachers, and the thought of your tuition bill definitely brings a second wave of energy when you get within an inch of giving up at 2 A.M.
Fact: Weight fluctuation is a thing
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a change in your weight is pretty much inevitable with a totally new eating and exercise plan. This can definitely feel like a harsh truth. But, in reality, everyone faces a similar situation—and it’s so not a big deal. Life goes on! All bodies are beautiful!
Fiction: You meet and date your future spouse immediately
Kudos to Hollywood for painting such a pretty picture, but the beginning of college is really about meeting friends that will stick with you through it all. Sadly, dating dynamics remain as awkward as they were in high school—but we all are still secretly watching Love Story.
Fact: Coming home is a weird feeling
When I used to hear current college students talk about feeling like strangers in their own house, I thought they sounded completely crazy. What I didn’t realize was that your school starts to become what is “home” to you and leaving it suddenly starts to feel wrong. After a few months at school, I found myself laying in my own bed at home feeling more out of place than I ever expected. Your friends and experiences at school can make even the tiniest corner of a dorm room feel like where you truly belong.
Fiction: You’re stuck in the dining hall for the next four years
If college students can be creative about anything, it’s absolutely food. It may seem like the dining hall is your only doomed option, but ways around the same meal everyday quickly begin to emerge. Market hacks and the wonderful invention of a fridge and microwave are your best friends, and can save you from any dining hall disaster.
Fact: It’s some of the best times you’ve ever had
If I could go back in time and fix what I listened to the most, I would focus on the nostalgia and fondness of college that parents and other adults share. College is nowhere near perfect, or anything like what you really expect, but it truly creates some of the best moments you’ve ever experienced. I promise!
Whether your biggest fears and excitements are fact or fiction, college is what you make of it. As all of the pro’s and con’s begin to become your reality, remember to take them one at a time and put them in perspective—they are one of many phases of adjusting to a new life. For now, stop your worrying and focus on what’s to come. You got this!
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