"You have to leave the city of your comfort & go into the wilderness of your intuition.
You can't get there by bus, only by hard work & risk & not by quite knowing
what you're doing, but what you'll discover will be wonderful.
What you'll discover will be yourself."
- ALAN ALDA
Weird to think that in less than 50 days, I would be walking across the stage earning my first degree. It feels like yesterday whenever I started my undergraduate career at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette--moving to an unknown city, discovering new things about myself, and also molding myself into a grown woman.
Want to know the weirder part of all this?
I'm definitely not who I expected to be. I consider this the magic of it all.
The old me was:
A nursing student
Dedicated to learning the ends and outs of hospitals
Stressed
Unhappy
Unwilling to make my own decisions
Based every opinion on what my parents thought
Fearful of taking risks
Now, I can finally say after four years--I've branched out into a person who's:
Fearless
Capable of accepting things the way they're supposed to be
Learning from past mistakes
Able to take a leap of faith
Remaining true to myself
& knowing that everything happens for a reason
The purpose of me making this blog post was based on personal reflection & some advice on what I learned throughout my undergraduate years that made me into a "successful college student."
What are the tips you may ask? Well they're pretty simple.
Keep God first. Believe it or not, your religious practices are different--now that you're doing everything on your own. No one is waking you up every Sunday morning at 9am making you get dressed for Church. It's all on you at this point. I've struggled with my personal relationship with God ever since my freshman year. However, no one can tell you how to praise YOUR God. Whether it's praying three times a day, once a day, going to church, reflecting in a park, etc. Just make your praise + worship routine easy, flexible, and enjoyable.
Prioritize. Getting an education is the main reason why you're in college, so why not make it a responsibility? Prioritize your schoolwork, social activities, and personal life to where you don't drive yourself insane--but also, make it to where you set aside enough time to go to class, take notes, learn, and reap the benefits on exams and projects from all your hard work!
Believe in Yourself. I've had problems with this one my whole life. It seems like an easy task, but having faith in yourself and also trying to be successful at the same time requires balance and motivation. Just make sure your self care + confidence is on point throughout college, because growing pains aren't a walk in the park.
Make your own decisions. You're a big kid now. Your parents should not be making your decisions for you, especially since they're not paying for your education anymore. Your degree is a reflection of the TIME, EFFORT, and MONEY you invested into your college's curriculum. The only thing your parents need to do is to give you advice + watch you blossom into a full blown adult.
Mental Health is important. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH!!!! Take care of yourself!! Put yourself first in anything you do. If you feel like a lot is on your plate, eliminate it. If you feel like you're going to start crashing, rest. If you need a counselor, go get one. You'd be surprised at how many college students suffer with this tip.
There's no such thing as "graduating on time." We get it...every class has their designated year that they need to graduate. However, no one can put a time on yourself except God. Getting your degree is not a race. No one is rushing you to finish. Just relax and enjoy everything college has to over. Being a 5th or 6th year senior isn't bad...life happens. *shrugs*
Have fun! Set aside time to enjoy yourself (just not too much). This is your PRIME for making memories with friends and your other peers around campus. Just enjoy being young, because whenever the bills start piling up, you'd wish you were still in college.