Live like a Freshman

As a rising fifth year student at UGA, I have freshman envy. Even if they don't know it, freshmen are blessed. Each freshman steps onto a campus of peers that will challenge them, professors that will champion them, and curriculums that will propel them. Not to mention they sleep until noon, lay out on campus lawns all afternoon, and party like it's 1999 every night. I'm likely jealous of the life they live because I didn't realize the amazing legacy I inherited when I started my first year at UGA. As I start out to make this final year my the best of college, I reflect upon a few lessons I've learned from my first year.

Don't Lose Sight of the Silver Lining Among the Clouds

When I settled into room 913 in Oglethorpe Residence Hall (O-House Penthouse), I didn't leave my door open to meet the 50 other students on my hall or play Mario Cart until 4:00 AM with them in the lobby. I didn't plug in and explode into the college experience because the dorm was cramped compared to my house back home—I lost sight of the amazing forest I was in because I wasn't accustomed to the trees.

Life is full of different environments and the change from one to another can be jarring if we don't see all the possibility around us once the dust settles.

Mine Resources

In high school it was cool to procrastinate, slack off, and push back against teachers. Life doesn't reward that attitude and college is a great teacher of that lesson. Though I wasn't a bad kid in high school (in fact I was the stereotypical AP nerd), I didn't cash in on the mentorship my teachers were willing to provide and that pattern unfortunately carried over to my first year of college.

Lesson? The students that plug in succeed—they learn something, become better people, and gain some fans in their corner. No matter what stage of life we're in, resources are available to help us along the way and it's plain dumb to ignore them.

Figure out the Plot 

I started college with an English major but it wasn't until long after jumping to Marketing that I put literary analysis to action on myself. I spent a semester and some change at UGA looking for the popular crowd before I realized it didn't exist. The time looking was a waste because I could have spent it finding out who I was and making that person as best I could rather than shoving who I thought I could be into an imaginary mold.

Most of us labor to make a compelling what, when, and where—what am I going to do, where am I going to do it, and when will it happen? The people that are the most alive (and the most fulfilled) spend significant energy finding out the plot elements that matter. Those happy people take time to first discover who and why—who am I and why am I here? They derive the rest of the plot from the answers to those two questions and live lives the rest of us read about.

Always be Beginning 

When I walked back to that dorm from my first day of classes, I could have noticed the vibrant student body at Georgia, the gorgeous campus I walked upon, or the over 600 organizations awaiting my interest. Instead my major takeaways of the days were that UGA had too many hills and that it was a million degrees outside.  Now that I'm a little older, the most energizing part of my day is the beginning, the most exciting stage of a project is the launch. Starting is energizing.

The best part is that by being present in every moment, we can take hold of our action and mindset so that we're always at the beginning. College freshmen aren't the only ones for whom the world is an oyster, they just believe it is more than the rest of us. Once we get hyped for beginning, we lose focus on the boring parts of life and see the pearl in our stories again.

At the intersection of realizing these three lessons sits the real magic of college and the first year experience. College freshmen who understand that when they walk onto their campuses are wildly successful both on campus and after it. I can't help believing that success in any stage in life lies somewhere near that intersection as well.