What It's Like to Be a First-Year Uni Student

It's extremely hard. That's what your high school teachers will tell you. They'll tell you how you'll have to learn to balance your time. That you can't party all night, sleep all day, skip lectures, and expect to pass with flying colours. For the most part, they're right.

Frosh will probably kick ass. You'll do amazing things, meet amazing people, and think, "hey, I could get used to this." But then classes will start. It will fuck you up. You'll be lost, you'll be clueless; you'll have no idea what you're doing, so you'll go back to your dorm, put on Netflix, and cry while eating a bowl of ramen noodles and wonder why you ever left home. Then, it stops sucking. Classes end up being fine. You get used to having spare time between your classes, and you take advantage of the extra time by studying. You start to like the cafeteria food and spend way too much money on a hoodie with your uni name on it, even though no one in their right mind should spend that much money on an article of clothing. You'll tell your parents how great everything is and you'll laugh at yourself for ever thinking you couldn't do this. You'll think of how wrong the teachers were for saying how difficult university would be and how big of an adjustment it would be.

Then midterms will start. You'll make a study schedule and review all the notes you took on your new laptop. You even bring your notebook to the café with you, and look over chapter summaries while you eat the food that's starting to lose the yumminess you swore it had two weeks ago. You get together with some people you met here and there in class and study as a group. You think about how you can't wait to ace your first midterms, to show off how you've got everything put together, to prove to all of your teachers, friends, and family that you're kicking ass at this student thing.

Then you'll get the grades back. You'll check your computer with your fingers crossed and your heart beating faster than normal. But you have nothing to worry about, right? Didn't you feel confident taking that exam? You studied so hard, stayed up late all week, and even had colour-coded flashcards. You have absolutely nothing to worry about... right? You open your email, only to see a little, yellow 'C' next to half of your classes. Your heart breaks. You feel crushed. No. You feel robbed. You studied, you never missed a single class and you worked hard. How could this happen?

Maybe you cry. Maybe you yell. Maybe you call your mom and have a heart to heart. Maybe you eat a whole tub of ice cream. Whatever you do, don't abandon what you came here to do. When you're done feeling crushed—no, robbed!—pick yourself up and remember who the fuck you are. You are smart, you are capable, you've got the world in your hands, and you will get through this. You know what to expect from now on. You will push yourself until your C's turn to B's turn to A's. You are a first year university student, still holding on.