It has been one crazy ride—my first year of college, that is. I have endured many laughs, tears, failures, successes, feelings of excitement, and feelings of frustration. Although I did my best in preparing for the transition of moving to college, I realized that I was not at all ready for what was to come. I rarely experienced homesickness or the difficulty of living on my own. Instead I experienced a lack of self-motivation and self-support. I found it hard to motivate myself when it came to school. When things got hard, I mainly reached out to my mother because she was the strongest and most motivating person I knew I could count on for anything. She helped me get through the harsh reality of school, relationships, and even my own self-caused problems. During this first year of college, I learned that just because your moving out of your parents’ house doesn’t mean your moving out of their care, love, and support. My mother and God is what helped me through the best of times and most importantly, through the worst of times. I know that this blog may not be exactly the ideal topic everyone was anticipating to read, but I wanted to share a side that many students don’t show. I hesitated to write this because I felt that it may cause me to look vulnerable to others, but I did so anyway because I am sure that there are others out there who had just as a hard time as I did. I not only wrote this for myself, but I wrote this in hopes of reaching out to others and letting them know that they aren’t alone. My entire first year, I convinced myself that I was alone and that no one could possibly understand my struggle. I even believed that I endured the most disappointing year of my life. I realized through all my struggles I was learning to become more disciplined in my studies, stronger to move on from failures and more comfortable with reaching out for help. I am glad that I have learned those things, so that when its time to start my Sophomore year I will not go through the same situations again.
