There’s a lot of positive hype about college but it can also be a hard adjustment. As we seniors apply to college and juniors visit schools, I figured I would ask some recent LFHS graduates for some advice.
I asked each alum the same question: What do you wish you knew before going to college?’
Most gave similar responses focusing on making friends in college.
“I wish I knew that I didn’t have to be nervous about being around all new people. It sounds cliche but if you are being yourself you really find the people you fit the best with,” said Amalia Liguori-Coneff, a freshman at Marquette University.
Andrew Gherlein, a freshman at Miami University echoed Liguori-Coneff and added that “everyone is just as nervous as you are.”
Not only is the fear of making friends something that worries many people as they leave for college, but so are the small things that our moms and dads did for us when we lived at home.
It’s the little things we overlook. We think we are old enough and know how to do everything ourselves, but sometimes we don’t and that’s what most of us will learn when going away.
“I wish I knew how to return things… I ordered a bunch of clothes and some didn’t fit, and now I’m lost as to how to return them. Sorry mom!” said Morgan Kamholz , a freshman at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
I was also reminded not to compare myself to anyone else because no one is the same. Everyone has a different personality and different ways of going about life.
“Honestly, the first few weeks being away just felt like you were at summer camp—new people, new place, small dorm, and mediocre food. There’s so much change, but it’s filled with all this crazy newness that’s hard to even comprehend sometimes,” said Elizabeth Kelly, a freshman at St. Louis University.
Ultimately, we need to live our lives how we want to. We need to make the best decisions and not let anyone else make them for us.
And as Kelly says, remember to stay in the moment.
“I wish someone would have reminded me early on to enjoy where I was in that moment, rather than worrying about the next thing to come,” Kelly said.
