Things I regret about my first year in college
I have enjoyed every piece of my college experience. Starting off mid-2021 after the world went on hiatus as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and I had just come off a seven year stunt of trying to figure out what I wanted to go study in college, given I will even get lucky to get admitted into any institution. I suppose I got lucky or perhaps fortunate eventually, and there I was seven years later after completing high-school in college and ready to explore the adventures college life had to offer.
I started off on a fairly brilliant note, classes weren’t as difficult as everyone confessed them, lectures and lecturers were great and every face was new and fresh — a wonderful relieve after staying really long at home with my parents constant barge of expectations. Tests turned out fine and I got to make some really interesting and unusual friendships.
Now you’d wonder what could possibly strike the emotion of regret, and in truth, I don’t so much as regret anything really, but I of course feel hurt by some of the decisions I made. Below are the things I wished I had given more attention to during my first year in college
1. My study routine
This is perhaps an obvious thing, but what I do regret about this is I didn’t give it enough time or priority in-fact. Now, I can come up with multiple excuses as to why I spent time doing other important activities, but looking back at the moments and staring blankly at my results, no excuses will suffice for anything.
I was lazy and I admit it, and I dearly wish I wasn’t because the ripple effects of one failed course is something I wish I was smart enough to avoid.
2. An egocentric attitude
After much thought, I will admit I overplayed my importance in certain areas of my college life and experience such as not attending classes, skipping tests, violating instructions and ignoring relationships with other students including all my lecturers.
Interestingly, most of these were conscious decisions and while it looked cool for a moment, and to some might seem a display of confidence — I will admit that most of those were foolish decisions, and truth be told, it offers little fun in the end. This attitude I believe made me underestimate many important moment.
3. Inconsistency
I can remember not being fully dedicated to any specific thing about my college experience (save one personal project). One minute I am up and agile, making promises to lecture free classes, only to disappear from everything and everyone the next minute.
This of course earned me the reputation of not being unreliable with certain things — consequential things.
My entire regret is wrapped up in one single thing; my attitude. I took things lightly and lied to myself about my greater good, going ahead of myself that I forgot what was really important. Although I could evidently see I was getting myself into the wrong habits, I made the unwise choice of being satisfied with my average performance.
Conclusion
Regret perhaps might be a terrible word to use, because as much as I recognise my errors and clearly hurt by my wrong choices. I have little time or desire to be wistful about it.
I admit my shortcomings and now I desire to pull of a comeback for myself because now I know:
The magic of excellence is birthed from intentional actions in the desire for excellence — ILEMRE.
