Lessons from first year of college

College is a big change for many students, which enables them to grow in various ways throughout the first year. As with all new steps in life, it leads to initial feelings of anxiety, nervousness along with a ‘yay’ kind of feeling, and I was no different thinking through all this in the summer of 2021. In the end, I wanted to get the most out of college in terms of learning, independence, life-long friendships and fun.  

Through the first year, I have grown since I needed to learn how to live independently in a new environment. In order to live alone independently, I needed to learn how to ask for help from new people like helping me carry my filled plate in the cafeteria, opening the doors that were not handicap accessible, carrying my walker where there was no accessibility, etc. I had some practice at that before college, but I needed to constantly do it at the beginning of the year. I was aware of this and thankfully everyone was willing to help. After one or two weeks people started knowing me better and helping me on their own. 

I also need to learn how to set up my room so that I am able to get ready on my own in a timely manner. My parents set it up initially and then I learned what is the best position for everything so I am the most efficient. I also had to make sure that I leave enough time to get ready – things you take for granted at home because parents can remind you of the clock when you forget! 

I plan my day so that I spend my time efficiently and develop a relationship between my friends while also doing well in my classes. For traveling, I try to find the best way to get from class to class before classes start and plan my schedule and meals so that travel is minimized. My classes are generally a 15-20 minutes walk from my dorm. I also plan my day in a way that once I am done with my classes and go back to my dorm, I stay over there. If I have some activity (such as office hours) near my classes at night, I stay in that area the entire day. For lunch, the cafe in the Strata building was my go to since going to one of the dorms for lunch took too much time. I also started to carry around bars in case I didn’t have time to order a full lunch. At the beginning of the year, I only attended virtual office hours so that I could do them in my dorm, but then I realized that they were not enough, so I started attending in-person office hours too. If I was walking back too late in the night with my walker, I used to turn the walker lights on and blinking so I could stay safe. Dinner time with my friends became my primary break time, but I also planned one fun activity with them on the weekends. 

Now that I am more adjusted to college, I feel more confident about next year. I am also looking forward to having more experiences and learning more from them as I keep growing throughout the next three years. Watch for my next blog on this – rest assured it will have more lessons and learnings.