Hi all, as we prepare for the return to campus, I thought I would share some lessons I learned during my first two years at Scripps that might have made things easier if I knew them before! Therefore, I am passing on my advice to you. Here are my five biggest life lessons:
- People may seem more confident and self-assured than they actually are. Obviously, some people actually are confident. However, some (if not most) people are faking it! This means two things—one, don’t be so hard on yourself if you are nervous or self-doubting — you definitely are not alone! And two, this means you can fake confidence and no one will see through it. Try to remember that everyone around you is a human too and subject to flaws and mistakes, so don’t give imposter syndrome power over you!
- College isn’t magical, and you are not going to change overnight. When I first came to Scripps, I wanted to change everything about myself—I wanted to dress better, to be more studious, to be more social and essentially, fix all my flaws. This led to me suppressing who I really am and feeling very unhappy, and I needed to give up this idea. Don’t get me wrong, I have changed a lot since coming to Scripps, but it has been a much slower process. So, accept and celebrate change and growth, but don’t expect change to happen overnight.
- Everyone has a different path – don’t put so much pressure on yourself. There’s no one recipe to success—everyone’s story looks different. Don’t take on too much because you feel obligated. (Mostly) everything you do in college should be because you want to and you are getting something out of the experience, not because you think you have to. Of course, I encourage you to push yourself out of your comfort zone and go out for opportunities, but remember that if you don’t have a job or an internship one summer, it doesn’t make you any less, nor does it mean you won’t lead a happy and successful life.
- Listen to your body. I was definitely a high schooler who was constantly moving and doing 20 things in a day. When I got to college, I had much more free time, and I struggled with productivity. I found myself trying to force myself to study or work out when my body was telling me no, because I felt I had to. With online school, I have learned to be much kinder to myself and my body. Yes, sometimes you have to force yourself to do things (especially if you have an assignment due), but overall, try to listen to your body and give yourself rest as well as work time. I have found the best way to do this is to schedule time to do assignments earlier than I need to so getting it done late is actually on time!
- Don’t save your homework for Sunday. Personally, Sundays are a day to get ready for the rest of the week, not a day to be scrambling trying to get work done. Thursday nights and Friday mornings are the best times to get work for the next week done. Sundays can be a great time for studying, but you don’t want to be working against a deadline. This is especially true for readings—they may take longer than you anticipate so working on them sooner rather than later is super important.
Those are my biggest pieces of advice for you all. College is different for everyone, but these are the life lessons that I wish I had under my belt before beginning. I’m sure through my next two years I’ll continue to learn and grow as well. I always have advice to give so if you have any more questions about college or anything else let me know! You can reach out to me through my email ([email protected]) or through my IG office hours!