READ THIS IF YOU'RE A COLLEGE STUDENT

First and foremost, I’m not going to sugarcoat it: college is hard. College is really hard.?

At least, it was for me.?

On the first day of college orientation, I walked on campus with the most anxiety I had ever experienced in my life. There were all of these questions circulating my brain as if my mind was working overtime just to find the answers. Out of the thousands and thousands (...and thousands) of questions that were screaming in my brain, while I was moving into my freshman dorm, there were 5 questions that were louder than the rest. They went something like this:

1. What if I choose the wrong major?
2. What if I fail and I get kicked out of school?
3. What if I chose the wrong school?
4. What if I don’t get enough internships that align me to get the best job?
5. How am I going to figure out living on my own?

Most of the questions, if not all of the questions, were based on one question. And I believe, to my core, that behind every college student’s anxious questions, the real question they want to ask is this:?

How can I make the most of my college experience?

After being out of college for two years, and reflecting on my college experience, I wanted to share three things that I would’ve told myself in college; which existing college students can consider as they are navigating their own college experience.?

Here’s what I would tell my freshman self:

Wes, no one knows what they are doing (they’re just taking their best guess)?

Many college students struggle with the question of “what should my major be?” and I was definitely one of those students. I graduated from a top business school, but even though the school was focused in the area of business, I had no clue what area of business I wanted to focus on. Initially, I thought it would be finance. To be honest I picked finance because, in high school, I had a friend whose dad worked on Wall Street and made a lot of money. (side note: money doesn't equal happiness).?

I made my decision based on a guess. I had never worked on Wall Street. I never even met my friend's dad. For all I know, my friend was telling a lie to make himself look cool. However, looking back if I could change anything, I would remind myself to not put so much pressure on myself. It’s okay to not know. It’s okay to go into college without a major predetermined.?

Truthfully, I’d like to add that it’s also okay to change your major. In most professions, outside of medical or law professions, majors don’t necessarily equal employment.?

There are many of my former college classmates who studied a particular major, but are doing something completely different as a profession. I wish we would tell more college students the truth: majors don’t always equal employment.?

You’re not going to crash and burn, but you will crash and learn.

Looking back on my college experience, I crashed a lot. And by crash I mean fail. I have failed inside and outside of the classroom! I’ve received the lowest grades imaginable while at the same time publicly embarrassing myself by having a brain fart during a group presentation. To say the least, I have crashed tremendously.?

Every college student fears failure. I think we are afraid of failing in college because of the giant pressure society puts on going to college. Society claims that college is a required moment in our lives, where we determine what we want to do for the rest of our lives. I agree that college is a great learning experience, but I think it’s the perfect experience to embrace failure.?

For example, during the first midterm season of my freshman year, I wanted to perform well on my exams. I figured since my parents are paying for me to go here, I might as well try to be successful. Therefore, in order to prepare for success in my financial accounting midterm, I pulled an all nighter. On the day of the test, I had a huge brain fart (probably because I pulled an all nighter). For those who don’t know what a “brain fart” is, it is essentially looking at a test and not having a clue where to begin. Your brain goes blank.

I ended up scoring a 42 on that exam, when the class average was a 77. My professor pulled me aside and told me something I’d never forget: “Well Wes, I guess we’ve learned that you’re not going to be an accountant”. He was right. I’m not an accountant. I’m a professional public speaker. However, he was right about failure.?

Failure isn’t the death of you. It’s the beginning of you learning about you. You’re not going to crash and burn, but you will crash and learn.?

Stop memorizing and start learning

One of the biggest things I'd tell my college freshman year version of myself is to stop memorizing information and start learning skills.?

We’ve all seen those classic online memes which say “I’ve never been asked, in a job interview, to recite the pythagorean theorem”. There’s much truth to that. No one is going to ask what grade you received in economics, nor is an employer going to ask to recite William Shakespeare. However, they will ask you if you consider yourself a good problem solver and if you have strong communication skills.?

We no longer live in a world where memorized information, alone, will make you successful. In college I had it backwards. I thought if I memorized more information, it would make me a successful student. That approach worked in high school. But in college, the approach was different. To me, the approach should have been about increasing my focus on gaining hard skills. Could I learn more to be better at excel? Could I take a public speaking class to learn the art of communication? Could I take sociology to study human behavior??

I would tell myself to follow my curiosity and seek to learn skills around those subjects.?

Stay curious. Build skills.?

College was a time to follow my curiosity in order to discover what I was truly passionate about. And I implore you, the reader of this article, to do the same.

If you got value from this article, send this to someone who's in college.