Being a freshman in college sucks. You’re forced to live in a 12-foot-by-12-foot cinder block room that acquires dust like flies on manure. Not to mention, you’re living in this tiny space with another person who will either be amazing or make you wish you never came to college. They might leave food out, not clean up after themselves or talk on the phone until 4 in the morning when you have an 8 a.m. Or, maybe they mind their business and the only time you see them is at night when you go to bed. They could become your best friend. You two could become so close that you create a bond wherein you do everything together and still talk after freshman year. 

Everyone knows you’re a freshman too. You think you look “older” but really you look like a child. You dress up for your first frat party, thinking you look like sex on legs, but in reality, you’re wearing uncomfortable shoes that will be ruined by the sticky beer-stained floors. So you walk in with your little baby face and grab a red Solo cup, you lock eyes with someone from across the room and you think, “This is it.” They’re really wondering, “Who invited the freshmen?”  

The dining hall food is so-so. There’s a variety of options, but all the food is salted within an inch of its life so you can’t tell if it’s good or not. Dining hall hours are so limited that you’re better off buying microwavable food and relying on that. The food starts to taste the same, and you begin to wonder if eating straight salt and pepper would switch up your palette. 

Your friends still in high school think you’re an adult now and so much older than them. They think being in college is so mature. It sucks. 

The bathrooms are pretty gross, and you realize how many people don’t know what a courtesy flush is. People have bad personal hygiene, which makes you think it’s you who smells. You realize how much girls shed. Sometimes there’s enough hair on the ground to make another person. 

You’re far away from home, and you’re scared – or maybe you’re close to home and still scared. Mom and dad aren’t there to hold your hand anymore; you have to make big adult decisions now. Money is tight, and you get to decide if you should spend it on Mcdonald’s or washing your clothes. There’s always the possibility that financial aid will fall through or a scholarship gets revoked. Your friends want to go out, but you can’t because you have 53 cents in your bank account, and your student loan refund hasn’t hit yet.

Starting over and making new friends is hard and scary. Anxiety gets the best of you, it takes weeks until you feel back into your element, but you realize something: Everyone is just as scared as you. The girl down the hall who you ran into on the elevator cries every night because she hasn’t made friends yet. People in your classes don’t speak out because they don’t want to say anything stupid. Everyone is starting over.