By Madi Oglesby
Before I started stressing over financial aid, how to decorate my dorm and what friends I would make in college, I was overwhelmed with excitement for this journey that so many look back on for the rest of their lives.
I have dreamed of being a college student since I was 6 years old. Every move I made was to get myself prepared for college. I received silent lunch one single time in fourth grade, and I thought my life was over, as my record was now tainted with this atrocity.
As my high school senior year progressed, the stress hit me. I was constantly thinking about how I was going to pay for this college dream about making friends and connections with my professors. I even started second-guessing my dreams, changing my major about five times in that school year alone.
After all of this, I walked into Augusta University pretty unsure. It was not my dream school– not somewhere I had planned to go until April of this year. So, I was scared about living with strangers and starting out not knowing where I belonged.
However, there were parts of college that did feel like a dream and parts that felt like all of my stresses were coming true. I feel as though I have lived a lifetime in this short first semester of college.
Here are three main things I have learned in this four-month lifetime.
One of the first things that I had to learn when I came to college was probably one of the hardest lessons I’ve ever had to cope with. Not everyone is going to like you, and you have to learn to be okay with that.
As I was talking to some of my friends about this, asking about some lessons they had learned since being in college, they shared with me that this is something they had to come to terms with later in high school.
My story is a bit different than theirs, though, as I was homeschooled for the last three years of high school, so I was not exposed to all of the pressures of high school friendships. As a result, I was navigating this in my first semester of college.
As a chronic people-pleaser, this was insanely hard for me to accept. I’ve always desired to be liked by everyone, and I wanted college to be the same way. I wanted that huge group of friends that you see in the television shows. Though, I quickly found out that it is much easier said than done. Not everyone will get along, and not everyone is going to be your best friend.
I am starting to learn to accept this fact, as I know it is something I will deal with for the rest of my life. I have learned to accept and love the blessing of the small group of friends I have made since being at AU. I don’t talk to many of the friends I thought I’d keep since LEAP Week, but I am just as grateful for the ones I met.
This was possibly the hardest thing I’ve learned this semester, but it’s also one of the most important. College is nothing like high school, and TikTok doesn’t do a great job of preparing you for this truth.
The second thing that slapped me in the face when I came to college was time management. After doing school online for almost the entirety of high school, I am no stranger to procrastination. For some reason, though, I thought that going to college would immediately cure me of this. How naive of a belief.
I did well in my classes for the first few weeks, reading every chapter of the textbooks and doing all of my work on time. This lasted nicely until I got a job, started making friends and lost more sleep. I started procrastinating on my assignments until the very last minute and not doing any of the assigned readings because I was not paying attention to when they were due.
I had to learn quickly that I am now managing myself, and I am paying for this education. As much as we may forget as college students, we are working toward our success in the future to bring about a happy, healthy life for our future family. That is something that is easy to forget when you skip math class that first couple of times.
Toward the end of the semester, it became much easier to skip classes, which is something that quickly became a bad habit. Going into next semester, my goal is to get better at my time management. Allowing myself time to do my assignments, work and have a life all at the same time. College is important, and I’m working hard not to lose sight of that.
The third and final thing that I have learned since being in college is how to live for myself and make decisions that will support me and my dreams. This sort of goes hand in hand with becoming less of a people pleaser, but it deserves its own category as it is something that has also been pretty hard to come to terms with.
Before I moved to Augusta, I had so many plans on what I was going to do my freshman year. I wanted to join the wind ensemble, have two jobs lined up, write for the Bell Ringer, join the Student Government Association and be an honors student.
It only took until the second week of school for me to realize that this was not going to be possible. After pulling out of the wind ensemble and completely not going for SGA, it hit me that I also had to learn how to disappoint myself.
Something about me is that I always like to be moving. I have to have something to do at all times in order to feel like I’m doing my best. After cutting all of these things out, I was left with one job and only working for the Bell Ringer. Even though I’m not doing nearly as much as I wanted before I came to AU, I am just as proud of the work I have done.
I learned how to manage my time while also making sure that I am doing enough to be proud of myself and the effort I have been putting into these things.
College is a lot of hard work. It pulls on your stress levels, sleep quality, friendships and confidence. These realities are not something that the overly glorified YouTube and TikTok videos prepared me for, but I’m glad I was able to figure it out on my own.
Looking back at my first semester in college, I am happy to be where I am. I have the greatest friends. I love my job. The Bell Ringer is my favorite place to be. And I’m learning how to live my life for myself with all of my goals in mind.
College is nothing like I thought it would be. And if I can help out even one struggling high school senior with their preparation, that is success to me.
Basically, to sum all of this up, I have had to learn to stop stressing and just do what is best for my goals. As my mom used to say, “Don’t sweat the small stuff. And it’s all small stuff.”
I am proud to be a Jag, and I can’t wait to continue working through life at Augusta University. Stress and all.
