Today's post is on all the "bad news" of college life, everything college students don't find out about until after they've been accepted to a university. For anyone who has not been to college yet, beware. Don't read ahead unless you want some serious discouragement. For all of those who have been to college, or are in college now, you may continue.
Here's all the good news I was told before I started: "Everyone on campus is so friendly and helpful!" "You'll meet lots of new people and form new relationships!" "There are plenty of opportunities to explore your interests and have fun!" "You'll get to take fun, interesting classes!" "You'll graduate with a degree ready to start a career you love!" All of this sounds fantastic. In fact, these incentives are what got me so excited during the transitioning process, what I dreamed about when I was in high school. Don't worry, I'm not going to tell you it's all lies. These things did turn out to be true. So what's the bad news?
Here's what I didn't know about: the amount of homework I'd have, the amount of pressure I have on me constantly, to get good grades, to get to class on time, to manage my time and schedule, the amount of responsibility I have, the tired feeling that follows me around all week until the weekend when I only might have time to catch up on sleep, the strong feelings of defeat I get when I don't do as well as I know I could have, the very few second chances available, and the feeling that I can't get ahead no matter how hard I work. College isn't as sunny and breezy as I thought it would be. I was an excellent student in high school, so I thought that college wasn't going to be so hard. My confidence and excitement blinded me to reality. This first semester has proved itself a challenge for me, even when I planned on it being an easier semester, and my upperclassmen friends tell me it's only going to get worse.
More than once, as I'm staying up late getting my homework done, I think to myself , "Why was I so excited to start college again?" Then I answer, "because I didn't know it was going to be like this! Not really."
OK so there it is, the bad news. Did I discourage you? I tried to warn you, but if you're reading this sentence, you obviously didn't listen. Maybe I didn't discourage you, after all you can never really know these things until you've experienced them for yourself. That is a piece of wisdom I've acquired as I transitioned to college. It is something I never believed when I was younger, but now I understand. My dad says it this way, "You can't know what you don't know." Everything I described are the things about college, that you just can't know until you know. Sorry for the spoiler, but don't despair, if I can do it, so can you. All the bad stuff is worth the effort. Unfortunately, you can't get any of that good stuff without it.
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