When you go into college, you think you have everything
figured out…your goals, your dreams, who you are as a person…but when you
actually get there, you realize you don’t know anything. This is why:
When you step onto your college campus for the first time,
you get this feeling of excitement. New beginnings, new people, nothing
defining you, what could be better right? Well, unfortunately, with beginnings
come a lot of new fears.
Yes, there are new people but at the same time there’s no
one who really knows you. You are no longer with the same people you’ve been
going to high school with for four years. This may sound good to some people,
but at least your high school peers knew you. The hardest part about college is
you’re away from home, not with your family anymore. When you have a bad day,
you can’t go home to your family and tell them about it; you’re by yourself. You
no longer have your family and friends there to remind you of who you are when
you get a little lost.
Yes, there is nothing defining you…sometimes that’s scary.
What’s crazy is that you don’t really know what defines you until you are put
into a situation where no one knows anything about you, your failures, your
successes, your strengths, your weaknesses, or your past.
During my experience, I didn’t realize how much I defined
myself in my successes. When I went to college, no one knew what I’ve
accomplished, no one knew what HOSA was, and no one knew what I had overcome.
There was absolutely nothing defining me and no one to remind me of who I was. Fortunately,
I never lost sight of my values but I did begin to question what my goals were
or who I really wanted to become. Since I was in this place where no one knew
me, I now had to define myself and build a reputation that these new people
would know me as. So I had to ask myself, what do I really want to do with my
future? What are my passions? What qualities do I want to see myself
possessing?
I’m not writing this to freak anyone out about college but
to prepare them. Unfortunately, I still don’t have the answers to my questions,
but I strangely feel content with where I’m at. My entire life, I forced myself to
have every aspect of my life figured out, but now I feel like it’s okay not to
know. Now is the time to take your time and really discover the answers to your
questions. Instead of focusing on what you don’t know, focus on what you do
know. Focus on the life you have now. Make memories, create experiences, seek
adventure, and learn to live. Everything will fall into its place so there is
no point in worrying about it.
Stay on this journey with me as I post about
the adventures life takes me on.
