A month into my freshman year, I went to a tennis game that was a long ways away from my dorm. It had been weeks since I last charged my mobility scooter so it started to slow down on my way there. I made it to the game but barely had any battery left to make it back. I ended up having to call security to drive my scooter and I back to the dorm. Ever since that day, I never forgot to charge my scooter again LOL!!!! Other than charging my scooter, there are definitely a few things I wish I knew before attending college.

This was the first time I was living on my own so I wish I knew that all my worries and fears were completely normal. I was super homesick that first week of being away, and was constantly thinking about maybe going back home. But I knew I couldn’t do that—I couldn’t just leave so easily without giving things a real shot. I’m glad I didn’t let those negative thoughts take over because just weeks later I was so happy to be living independently. Fast forward to this junior year, where my friend and I live in an apartment together!! I finally got a single this year, and let me tell you, it makes such a difference to have your own space (I had roommates my previous years). I also cook most of the time now. That’s right, I cook, which I had no idea how last year!

I wish I I knew to get a mobility scooter… and to um… not be so… stubborn. If you know me, then you know I absolutely, and I mean absolutely, hate to ask for help. I always like to do things myself, it can be a good and bad thing. Before college, I insisted on using a manual wheelchair with power wheels to get through the hilly Marist campus. BIG MISTAKE. I constantly asked random students to help wheel me. By the third or fourth week of school, I was hysterically crying on the phone with my parents telling them that I needed a scooter. A couple weeks later, I was finally driving around in my hot, new ride! It was so much easier to get around campus and I was less stressed out about getting to classes on time. 

Honestly, I still have the “I’m able to do it myself” problem today. My friend who currently lives with me laughs because I refuse her help with things that may take me more time to do, like vacuuming or putting groceries away. Sure, it’s time-consuming and I know she doesn’t mind, but it’s still super do-able for me. Same thinking with the power wheels! I definitely regret not getting a scooter beforehand, but as for the stubbornness, my family and friends still have to tell me it’s totally okay to ask for help, and I’m working on it, I promise!

And lastly, I wish I knew to always make an effort to meet new people. For the most part of freshman year, I spent all of my time with the same group of people so l didn’t really participate in school activities and barely made an effort to talk to others. To make a long story short, they were never my real friends in the first place; it ended up being a significantly emotional and rough ending to that year. I truly felt like I was back to square one afterwards, like I was a freshman all over again in my sophomore year. I knew things were going to get better, but also knew it would take time to emotionally recover. If I’m being all that honest, I was still struggling at the beginning of sophomore year, but by the end of that first semester, I had met so many new people along with some good friends of mine who have stuck with me throughout quarantine and junior year. So honestly, even though I didn’t know it at the time, I always say now that freshman year really just did me a favor. It led me to new experiences and friends who I could not imagine not having in my life now, and I’m still always open to meeting new people and making new friends!!

I say I wish I knew all of this before college, and it’s true, I do. But do I wish I could spare myself those emotionally inducing experiences? Easy, no! I am so happy with where I’m at and especially who I am this junior year. I wouldn’t have gotten here if these things never happened. Within my college years, I learned to live on my own, gave up some stubbornness, started to use a mobility scooter, experienced social hardships, and made new, healthier friendships that have all made me learn and grow; that if you told me to look at the girl I was before college, I would not be able to recognize her.