3 Things I Learned My Junior Year of College
As my junior year of college draws to a close, three lessons stood out to me during this unpredictable year. First, I learned that friends will come and go. I’ve dealt with friends leaving me in the past in high school as well as creating a ton of new friends in college. However, this year made me realize friends can leave your life as quickly as they can enter it.
I’ve also always been such an open and vulnerable individual with others. Even when I first meet new individuals, I tend to reveal more about myself than others. I’ve been taught that vulnerability brings people closer, so I am quick to spark up a conversation. However, I want to be mindful of who I spend my time and energy with, so I’d rather get to know others quickly in order to see if I can form a fruitful bond with them.
However, after seeing some people’s truest colors, I learned that being so open can sometimes result in pain as your vulnerability can be used against you. This is the risk you take when you chose to reveal further layers of yourself. You should be aware and ready for this risk. Finding and keeping friends can be challenging, but you should cling to your core values, and the few friends who remain are the ones you should keep in your life.
Something else that I think many people have learned this year was that you can only plan for so much. Some stuff just cannot be planned for and is out of your control. A perfect example of this would be the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether you contracted the virus yourself, knew someone who passed away from it, were stripped of a senior year, or more, we were all somehow affected by this global pandemic.
I have a very strong Type A personality and it is extremely difficult for me to cope with change. I struggle with altering different plans for myself. This can range from college degree plans, vacation plans, or even a plan of how I am going to attack my homework that day. I enjoy making plans and sticking to them.
As a result of my personality, I have a harder time adjusting to the plethora of changes that the COVID-19 pandemic threw my way. A few were having to study remotely during the fall semester, being unable to travel abroad to France in the spring, and more. Although it was difficult to navigate through these turbulences, I learned that sometimes events will deviate from their original plan. I can’t say that I’ve mastered how to roll with these changes, but I can say that I am aware that these changes will inevitably occur, and I won’t let these changes completely shatter my mental health.
Lastly, this year has taught me the value of connections. Whether you are an introvert or an extrovert, you are bound to interact with others daily. This might be talking to the lunch lady while waiting in line for food, calling an uber driver, getting a call from your mom, grabbing coffee with your old friend, or more. Some of us crave social interaction more than others such as myself. I go out of my way to catch up with many people, and frequently try to spark conversations with people in public.
A conversation can turn into a relationship, and you never know where a relationship will go. The conversation you had with that cute boy in the elevator can lead to your future husband, the conversation you had with the random girl sitting on the train can inspire you to write your next blog, your relationship with your old track coach could lead to him sponsoring you to start your own brand of running apparel. The possibilities are endless.
For example, this year I got the pleasure of mentoring this girl a year younger than I about leadership. I was required to have three formal meetings with her. However, I loved talking with her so much because we had such a similar freshman year experience. I didn’t know that this mentee would turn into a close friend by the end of the year. Another example was that a few years ago I got coffee with a girl who was mentoring me for that same leadership program. We only spoke together for about thirty minutes at Starbucks one afternoon. However, after she graduated, this girl worked at the company that I wanted to land an internship with. She wrote one of my first recommendations, and I ended up getting an offer from that firm! You never know where a connection will lead so treasure each conversation and interaction you have with someone and understand the value of these relationships.
