How I Survived Freshman Year of College

Going to college can be a pretty scary thing. Maybe you’re going to an unfamiliar city with unfamiliar people. You may be worried about the campus and how you’re going to get to your classes on time. Perhaps you’re worried about your major, your professors, or even making friends. I was worried about all of these things. The anxiety I felt about starting and how the year would go raced through my mind daily. Would the year be good or bad? Would I make a lot friends, few friends, or no friends? What about my classes? Would I end up changing my major? There were so many questions that I was anxious to answer.

There were definitely many things about my life that were going to change, whether I wanted them to or not. I was going to a bigger town with more traffic, more people, and more experiences than I had. I was filled with worry, but also full of excitement.

I was raised in a small town in Mississippi where everyone knew everyone. The main area consisted of about five oddly placed fast food restaurants, and a Walmart that was right across the road from the high school. There was more to it but those places I paid attention to the most. Twenty minutes away from town was my house that resided in the middle of nowhere. I was surrounded by trees, a neighbor that had a full on farm in their back yard, and and more trees.

Despite living in an area where the entire town knew everything about everyone except their social security number, I didn’t talk to many people. When it came to making friends, I liked to take the ‘I’d rather not embarrass myself and let them come to me’ approach. I have quite a few pretty close friends so I’d say my plan was decently successful. We did plenty of crazy and exciting things that usually involved us eating, going to the usually empty park and sitting, and then driving thirty minutes to the next town over to walk around the mall and not buy anything due to all of us being broke.

My life in my hometown was comfortable and I had grown used to it. I mostly stayed home and worked around the house or did homework. Going out with friends was an occasional thing unless I was doing something for…