The most important change you go through in college is growing up. During these four years people grow up a lot, in ways they could not have if they were still at home. Having all this freedom that college provides, gives us the space and time we need to grow up and become independent individuals. By allowing ourselves to go through this huge change, we learn how to do a lot of everyday things which make us more independent, allowing us to grow up. These things can be land anywhere on a range of simple tasks, from doing your own laundry to knowing when it is time to go to bed because you have class the next day.
One way we grow up is by realizing the importance of taking care of ourselves. Your parents are not there anymore to tell you that you need to have a more balanced meal or that you take medicine if you have a cough. Most of us, at first when we get sick, don’t 
want to go out of our way to buy the medicine we need or to schedule an appointment at the Health Center, across the road on Patroon Creek. We will try to power through our first college sickness, the hard way. We will tell our friends we will be fine by Thursday. We still have chocolate milk every morning even though you know milk makes a sore throat more mucousy. We will still wear only a sweat shirt to class when running a fever even though its only 20 degrees outside because it’s only a 100 meters walk to the tunnels. But as we progress in our college years, we learn to put on that extra layer and buy our medicine because not having to carry puffy coats in the tunnels isn’t worth it when we miss class for a week because of strep throat. You have to listen more closely to the ache and pains of your body in college. Learning how to do this in college will teach you how to take care of yourself later in life, when you really live on your own.
We also grow up by learning how to co-exist with those around us. Living with 5 other girls makes you more responsible with your things. You make sure you clean up after yourself. No one is there to do it for you anymore if you forget. You also learn to talk out problems more easily. Whether it be taking out the garbage or using each others’ chargers, if there is an issue or something is missing, you talk things out instead of having a fit. College also shows you that even if you live with others it doesn’t mean you always have to be with them. You will have to go to the dining hall alone or have a class with no friends in it. College makes you okay with that. This is important because if you didn’t learn how to do things on your own or how to be okay with doing things alone, it would be hard to be an adult. After college, many of us will go into the job world and you will not always be working with your best friend, or have the same lunch break. You have to be independent in life.
College, showing you how to be independent, makes you grow. If you did not grow up during the four years you spend here, then things would be hard, but thankfully, college makes this growth inevitable. Whether it be through a limited class size making your best friend wait till next semester to take a desired course or getting tonsillitis and pink eye at the same time, there will always be curve balls thrown at you during this time. A time, that will make you grow.
About the Author:
Kate E. Class of 2018 Major: Communication Minor: Journalism and Philosophy Spring 2016 Blog Theme: Metamorphosis
Please Note: The views of our student bloggers do not necessarily reflect the views of the UAlbany Advisement Services Center. These are their stories – their voices.
Welcome to the Peer Advisor Blog 