First year of college

     Now that spring break is coming up and I'm almost finished with my first semester of college I figured I would write about my experience as a first-year college student. First of all, the summer before I left for school was so miserable for me. Most of my friends had already left for school or moved away with their families. All I did that summer was work, I worked at a daycare which can be extremely draining. I was so excited to move and be on my own that I did not use that summer to my advantage to spend time with my family. Now that I have been away, I have noticed how often everyone goes home on the weekends. I am from Alaska, and I moved to North Dakota and most people who go to school in North Dakota typically live fairly close by. This usually left me spending most weekends alone. Another thing I was so excited about was dorm life. Unfortunately, the dorm I was put in was very isolated from the other students and there are only a total of 20 students in my building. So, the biggest thing I was not expecting about my first year of college was how lonely I would be. 

Another thing I did not expect about my first year of college is how much downtime and little homework I would have. Now before you think I'm just not challenging myself I took the maximum credits of 20 and am in an honors program and have maintained A’s and B’s. I then decided to get a job, I work at a coffee shop pretty much full time, and I love it. Most of my good friends are my work friends. I spend more time at my job than at school. At school I typically have two classes a day that are 45 minutes each. Then I go to work and spend eight hours one on one with another girl in the stand. Getting a job really benefited me when it came to loneliness and friends, plus the money and free coffee is a good touch. 

Another thing I was not expecting about college was how hard second semester burnout would be. The beginning of the year was new and exciting and there were so many campus activities and events. Second semester is hard because the weather gets bad, you get homesick and there are no activities to do. There were a few times I couldn’t get out of bed because I was so tired or had no motivation to go to class or get my work done. Another thing that was hard for going from a 4.0 student to then accepting that college is much harder and having a B is not a big deal. As long as I am trying my hardest my grades will reflect that. The moral of this story is that college is hard, and many kids drop out, but I know in the long run I will appreciate the time and effort I put into my school when I have my teaching degree. There is only a short period of time where you can still be a kid and be in the classroom so take advantage of it.