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" It&amp;#039;s time someone told you something you may not want to hear: it&amp;#039;s possible your first semester at college may not be as wonderful and glorious as you may hope it will be. But that doesn&amp;#039;t mean your whole college career will be that way! Coming to Barnard, I saw everything in my head as being perfect\u2014I would have a cohesive group of super tight friends, I would be involved in so many activities, and I wouldn&amp;#039;t ever, under any circumstance, look back at high school nostalgically. I was wrong. The thing is, my first semester went well. My grades were solid, I did get involved in a couple of extra curricular activities that I really enjoyed, and I managed to get out of my Morningside Heights bubble to explore the great island of Manhattan a good deal. But I still didn&amp;#039;t really feel like I particularly belonged anywhere, a feeling that I experienced a lot throughout high school. I had come into college with expectations that were completely unrealistic. I expected that all the friends I made would be my best friends instantly, and that I would immediately call my college home. And because I didn&amp;#039;t feel this way and didn&amp;#039;t fulfill all these expectations as soon as I spent a week or so on campus, I thought I must have been doing something wrong. That is, until I realized second semester that most of my now close friends at school had felt the same exact way. Think back to your freshman year of high school. Chances are a few or maybe a lot of the people you were really close with back then were only acquaintances by your senior year. Maybe you started out high school as a pariah and ended up a social butterfly. Things take time, and it&amp;#039;s important to note that this also applies to college. Just because you may not have the social life or experiences you want to have your first semester doesn&amp;#039;t mean you won&amp;#039;t have them eventually. My friends and I will all testify: second semester is so much better than first semester! And I&amp;#039;m so excited for the time that&amp;#039;s still to come. It&amp;#039;s never too late to get involved and it&amp;#039;s never too late to make new friends. College is a learning experience, and I&amp;#039;m certainly not just talking about your classes. There are so many experiences out there to have, so many friends to make, and so many things to do, so go for it. After all, what have you got to lose? It only gets better from here. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/life/school/advice/a20709/why-second-semester-is-better/>