The third year has begun!
So, my Junior year at the College of Charleston has begun. Over the course of this summer, I experienced an amalgam of emotions leading up to September. I was happy to see my current friends and make new friends. I was excited to really begin studying classes that were very pertinent to my major. (Conversely, I was also nervous for the tougher classes.) I was anxious about my first year not living on campus. I was sad about people who had graduated or were studying abroad… Lots of emotions, I’m telling you!
One thing that I can definitively say as I entered my third year, is that I was ready. When I entered college, I know I had a weird set of expectations for the next four years. I thought everything would kind of come to me and that would be it and I would get a job when I was done. What I have realized, is that is just completely, unequivocally wrong. College is so much more than a means to an end! College is (forgive the cliche) seriously finding yourself.
I think that in retrospect, once you understand your place in new surroundings, one can question why they felt so uncomfortable to begin with. So I wanted to take this blog post to remind everyone to have tremendous confidence in yourself… Whether you are currently in college, starting high school, or are in the process of finding your future college… Remember that you don’t exist only in this current moment. You have existed and gained experience from your entire life and you are well-prepared to take on whatever endeavours you’d like.
In times of stress, I find it very comforting to remind myself that I have been stressed before and I have made it through all of them. I think that college has done a great job of teaching me to take life as it comes and to embrace its challenges. I hope that this advice resonates with y’all in a time that may be stressful because the beginning of the year should really be a great time! Just breathe, be great like you are, and get at it!