Today’s blog is a re-post of an article I found called “22 Things Your Freshman Year of College Teaches You”. The author, Jessica Root, is a 19-year old college student who posts at: jessiroo.wordpress.com

The article hit very close to home…I’ve got one step-daughter going into 2nd year university, one step-daughter who will be starting 1st year in September, and I’ve been putting in lots of time on university websites with The Daughter who is starting grade 12 but for who we have been doing research already because of university-volleyball scholarships.

With all these thoughts of university, I’ve been mentally reliving a lot of my own post-secondary education days. Hope these thoughts (as re-posted from jessiroo.wordpress.com) bring some fond memories back for you….

1. You’ll abuse the new freedom you have. It’s okay.
2. You’ll mess up and call Dad to fix it. It’s okay.
3. You’ll spend all of your money on all of the wrong things, and you’ll find outrageous ways to make more money. It’s okay.
4. You’ll kiss a lot of boys… And most likely regret the majority of them. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince, right? It’s okay.
5. You’ll embarrass yourself and do things that won’t make Mom proud. It’s okay.
6. You’ll realize Mom is right about everything, and you’ll continue to live your life as if she isn’t, pushing off your final surrender to the inevitable as long as possible. It’s okay.
7. You’ll lose touch with the people you talked to everyday in high school and keep up with the people you should’ve spent more time with when you had the chance. It’s okay.
8. You’ll feel lost and alone, and you will cry. It’s okay.
9. You’ll change your major (or add a minor or two). It’s okay.
10. You’ll try new things that you will love, and you’ll try new things that you will hate. It’s okay.
11. You’ll question everything your life was the last 18 years and wonder how you got to where you are. It’s okay.
12. You’ll eat. You will eat a lot. It’s okay.
13. You’ll learn that exercise isn’t an option… It’s a must. Yet you’ll still struggle to get to the gym regularly. It’s okay.
14. You’ll get a taste of marriage after living with your first roommate (especially if she also becomes your best friend) and your desire to be married in the future will be made even more unattainable because you’ll want nothing more than to live alone for the rest of your life. It’s okay.
15. But you’ll continue to search for Mr. Right, knowing at this point it’s a lost cause and accepting that you’ll die alone. It’s okay.
16. However, you’ll still keep faith in your fairytale; even on the days you won’t admit it. It’s okay.
17. You’ll still deal with the typical annoying people that always seem to show up in your life. They’re not going anywhere. It’s okay.
18. You’ll realize that adults don’t have it all figured out either. And you’ll panic. It’s okay.
19. You’ll pick just about anything else there is to do over class some days. It’s okay.
20. You’ll realize how important it is to go to class and regret all of the times you didn’t. It’s okay.
21. You’ll realize that there’s no place like home, and whether or not you let it show, you’ll be ecstatic when you get the chance to go back, even if you thought you wanted to run away forever. It’s okay.
22. And when it’s all over… You’ll want to go back and do it all again because despite it being the craziest, scariest time of your life, it was sort of beautiful and liberating. It’s okay.