So, you’ve started your first year of college, and everything is priority number one to you. Assignments, quizzes, group work, book buying, and all the awful little details you forgot are at the top of your list. You need to knock these off one by one before you can tackle socializing, sleeping, eating, or even feeling like a regular human being, right?
Wrong. How dare you suggest that starting college means starting in the middle? That’s almost as ridiculous as starting a column dedicated to first-years when midterms are already starting. What you need to do, even before jumping into this wild world of academia, is recognize that you’re starting something completely new. That means forgiving yourself for things you’ve got wrong. When you’re starting college, you might feel like a lost baby surrounded by cool busy people who have no time for lost babies like you, but that’s absolutely not true. Everyone has been that college newcomer who spilled coffee down their shirt or nearly fainted in the middle of the hallway. Hey, I once left my mug on my teacher’s desk after an exam.
Education and outside pressures demand you to finish all the work with utter grace, but that’s impossible, especially for someone as new to college life as you. Take your first baby steps into the messiness of college, slip on the wet floor, pass out in class, cry over some stupid thing.
It’s hard, but once you accept the mentality that you’re there to live and study, your fears of screwing up will slink away into the depths of your mind.