One Step at a Time

One thing I wished I knew as a freshman in college was to take things one step at a time. Growing up, I’ve always disliked surprises or “the unexpected” because I felt the urgency to always be prepared for the best, worst, and those “just in case” scenarios. In my fall quarter of freshman year, I decided to create a 4 year plan for myself which included all the classes I was going to take, the clubs that I wanted to be involved in, and the places I could volunteer at. As I was staring at my overly organized and color-coded google docs/spreadsheet, I felt as if I got this whole “college” thing situated. Unfortunately, life wasn’t a smooth ride, instead, it was a wild roller coaster ride consisting of many ups and downs.

Especially when spring quarter enrollment came around because I wasn’t able to register for the classes I needed due to restrictions and financial conflicts. In addition, urgent family situations arose causing me to skip classes in order to fly home. These obstacles I’ve encountered set off my entire 4 year plan, which then generated a massive amount of stress and worrisome into my life. The feelings of stressfulness transformed into a depressive, unstable state of mind, however, I luckily had a close friend who consistently reminded me to take a deep breath and to take things one step at a time. She helped me realized that college isn’t all about having the highest gpa or the most units, but it’s also about learning to be flexible and adaptable to new situations and environments. Unlike high school, you’re not going to have the same 7am to 2pm, Monday through Friday, routine. Everyday is going to be different, and that’s what awesome about college because each day is a new experience that you get to take with you for the rest of your life.