There are so many great things that came from my first full year of college, friends, experiences, challenges, and more so it's almost hard to fit all those events into 500-1000 words. Adjusting to college courses was definitely an obstacle and it was something that only experience can help you get better at. With that however, I had the most interesting and surprising experiences in the classes that I thought were the most challenging. Almost like how some of the things you first hate begin to grow on you until you start to love them instead. Now with that being said, that wasn’t the case for all of my friendships and relationships I built during college but it could definitely be considered the foundation for many (especially faculty relationships). Throughout college I experienced incredible challenges when I was faced with new class styles, teaching styles, a new level of freedom, and opportunities to build new relationships and I learned how to navigate all these things which not only helped me in the moment but will help me in the near future.
One of the courses I took in my first semester was the introduction to animal science and oh boy did it take me on quite the rollercoaster ride. I only took this class because it was a major requirement but I was still excited to jump in and learn about this field I knew fairly little about. However when I got to the first class and saw the workload, I was overwhelmed, and granted I was a little bit ticked off at the teacher too since I felt like the first few classes were pointless. We were being taught how to take notes and I mean there was an assignment where we had to take notes in five different styles, all on the same presentation. Little did I know that this skill was going to be heavily utilized throughout the course of this class, and all my others. I remember ranting to my roommate about the chapter notes we were assigned weekly, and how I wasn't a fan of the professor's teaching style and yet slowly I adjusted, I got into a routine and slowly I began to love the work and what I was learning. As hard as it was to sit down and read thirty page chapters and take notes, I realized that I was actually remembering what I was learning and was able to apply it to the hands-on work we did at the farm. I think if I had to give any advice in tackling classes like this I’d recommend that it's okay to have those frustrations and to be unhappy with the class and its work but I think that giving things time to come around and seeing the bigger picture in how this can help you outside of just the single class.
I think a lot of obstacles people might face during college are influenced by mentality. Especially when it comes to relationships with faculty and friendships. I feel like in high school it was easy for teachers to know you and for you to know teachers but for the most part in college that's not the case. The classes have 100’s of people in them and as special as we might think we are, we do just become another face in a crowd. The best way to build any faculty-student relationship is to reach out, make yourself known and be interested even if you may not be. This starts by going to office hours or asking for a few minutes of your professor's time after class even just to introduce yourself. First impressions are made in seconds but last the whole semester so don't be a blurred face in the crowd until the last week of classes when you may need a favor.
Honestly, that goes for friendships too. Everyones in the same boat as you, especially for the first few weeks of freshman year. Same rules apply, you may just be a face in a crowd to everyone else unless you make yourself known. Don't be afraid to knock on a neighbor's door or introduce yourself to a few people in a big lecture hall. The first impression lasts and with that being said, don't be a stranger. It might be a pain to hear but you're not the only fish in the sea, don't expect people to devote all their time to you, make the effort to reach out since college is basically networking. The people that you're friends with, especially the ones in the same classes as you are going to be so helpful when it comes to both of you navigating the courses for the first time. I met people who have different study habits and that helped me adopt some habits and also find what works best for me. Of Course friendships are not all based around school work, they're social and there's a group for everyone here. Find people with common interests as you but also branch out and find people that have different interests because it's so fun to learn new things, I mean that's the point of college right?
In terms of things I wasn't prepared for academically I could list plenty. I wasn't quite geared to juggle all the very different teaching styles and workloads per class, and I was a bit of a slacker in high school so the adjustment period definitely hit me like a truck. However I think all that helped me grow as a student and learn what methods of studying and time management worked best for me. It was a little bit of a journey of self discovery so it'll be different for everyone but I think the main theme is to be open to the changes. Everything you experience at college is a bit different than everything you experienced in highschool and the best way to learn how to manage this is trial and error. Mistakes have to be made, extensions asked for, and bad grades accepted. It's also important to keep a good mindset in all of this, your grades in college are not going to reflect the grades you got in highschool and that's okay but the best way to deal with them is to not dwell because the next assignment is truly around the corner and its important to focus energy on that instead of the previous assignment.
All in all I think that college is nothing to be scared of. It can be hard at the start, learning to break out of your comfort zone is a huge thing and doing so will help you navigate everything else from friendships to faculty relationships, and even those harder classes like oral communications. Try to keep a strong mindset through all of the changes you'll surely go through and be open to trying new things and making mistakes. The time will really fly by and I don't want anyone to look back with regrets that you didn't do something. Take some challenging classes and some classes that sound fun, you might just be able to stick your hand in the side of a fistulated cow. I did.