I’d like to say that I know myself pretty well, and for the most part, I always have. I’m an independent, determined, yet stubborn 18 year old. Throughout high school, I found myself struggling to relate to my other classmates. I simply didn’t care for the typical high school drama. Growing up I was excited to be in college, to be on my own and establish a place for myself in the “real world.” When senior year ended and reality kicked in that, in a short few months, I would be moving out of the house where I grew up and created so many memories, I started to wonder what my role would be in this new world. As I said before, I know myself. Whether or not you are confident in who you are and what you stand for, adjusting to a new lifestyle really puts that to the test. In just my first few weeks of school, I found it difficult to stand by my values. In an environment where you’re meeting new people every single day, it all comes down to how well you truly know yourself and who you want to associate yourself with.
In high school, I would tell myself that I was very good at determining whether people were good or bad. When I got to college, I slowly started to realize that maybe I wasn’t so good at it. The first few weeks at school, everyone is in the same boat.  We all want to find friends. In order to decipher who was truly worth spending my time with, I had to really sit and think to myself who makes me genuinely happy. I learned that my overall happiness was not about having “friends” who came around whenever it was convenient for them. Thankfully, this is something I learned early on versus later in the semester. It would have been harder to cut toxic people out of my life.
In just my first month at school, I have learned a valuable lesson:
My own happiness needs to come first.
If that sounds selfish or conceited, maybe it’s supposed to be. With the busy lifestyle college students lead, I think it’s easy for us to sometimes forget that we need to put ourselves first and think about what will overall make us happy as individuals. I hope that like me, you are slowly figuring out for yourself what it takes to live a genuinely happy life. It’s hard at first, but once you cut out toxic people and take time to know yourself better. I guarantee you live a much more fulfilling life.
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