Finding Identity Through College Life

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Arguably one of the most crucial and impactful years of a person’s life are in college. A college student is expected to identify which type of career they would like to pursue and most importantly find who they really are. Although it is a difficult task, I believe a student is able to get on track achieve these expectations if they remain focused, have a passion for the career type they would like to pursue, and just be open to experiencing several different things. There is simply not enough time to fully understand what type of person you are and who you really are in 4 years. It could take a whole lifetime for someone to find who they are but in college we are expected to find this in most cases 4 years.
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These first experiences may include living on your own without parent’s, being away from home, and having 100% freedom. All of these experiences correlate and essentially determine whether the student will succeed throughout their first year of college. Depending on some student’s background, they are better prepared for college rather than others. If a college bound student has siblings or parents that have went to college, it makes for a smoother transition than siblings or parents who did not go to college. This is because the parents or sibling can give insight and tips that helped them to succeed while they were at college. This helps prepare a student because they have an idea of what to expect. Freshman year in college is a critical year because it is when the college student faces the most adversity. In an article in the Huffington Post written by Brian Harke, I came across what he called the “Freshman Myth”. The freshman myth is when the student is overly confident about their abilities in school and college didn’t live up to what they expected. In the article Harke states, “According to the U.S. Census and American College Testing Program, an estimated 18 million students enrolled in college in 2008; nearly 34% dropped out in the first year because they were over confident, under-prepared and lacked realistic expectations about college.” (Harke). This statistic goes to show that

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