What It Means to Anchor Down
College, much like life, is overwhelming. So much gets thrown at you in the first few months! You have to drag yourself to meals, meet and live with hundreds of new strangers, and figure out how to pass Gen Chem – all without your parents. It’s so easy to get thrown off balance and feel lost in this vast, crazy, and exciting sea of college life. This is why I think that everyone needs anchor – a set of values and priorities that guides our time – to keep us in check.
My most important priority is, of course, taking care of my health and wellbeing! It’s so crucial to make sure we remember that we are human beings who need to be loved and cared for – which can be easily forgotten at a university where we put so much pressure on ourselves. That being said, education is still a top priority because it’s the reason that we’re here! Personally, I want to focus on truly learning and trying to understand the material, rather than getting a perfect 4.0. I feel that discovering the world around me is more important than slaving over a single number.
Sometimes, though, life seems to be too much for us to deal with, which is why we still need to rely on our support systems: our families. I like to call my parents every week and periodically just check in with everyone via text. It can be easy to forget that there’s a whole other world out there, and talking to them always seems to ground me. It also helps to lean on the people around us – I’ve met so many amazing people these past couple of months that have made my experience more worthwhile. Having fun with these new friends and just taking a good laugh every now in then makes you feel so much better!
As all of us gen chem’ers know, metal is malleable – meaning that it can be molded and changed. This means that we can adapt our goals and values as we learn and grow up. I’ve found that when I really focus on figuring out what’s important to me, everything becomes simpler. I’d like to think that life is very much about this process: creating and shaping the people we want to be.
Anchor Down!
~a fall view of Library Lawn~