By: Olivia Knott
My college freshman year has come to a final end and I am left with emotional sentiments of both joy and woe. I consider the past year and my thankfulness reaches God’s lovely ears for how everything took its course. I remember how I was desperate to go to High Point University and how I was so dejected about going to UNCC instead. I thought that I wouldn’t make many friends. I also thought that I wouldn’t have a good roommate.
However, God really made my freshman year incredibly blessed. I got the best roommate ever, a lot of my friends from high school lived near me and I got closer with them, and I made a lot of new friends. I got amazing experiences: I got to go to church with my girl group, I got to hang out with my guy friends and study with them at Mason’s crib (best time was when we all ate his aunt’s Easter egg candies), and I got some cherished moments alone.
I would usually eat by myself if no one asked me to eat with them so that I could take some time to think and reassess certain aspects of my life. I have developed a lot over the course of freshman year. Going into college, I was immature in aspects of romance and dating. I was really ditzy. I thought relationships were really happy-go-lucky but in reality, I found out that all relationships are really hard. I think they are really great still, but not all of them last like I believed that they would. My ditzy fantasies of romance were gratefully crumpled as a more mature, calm, and realistic mindset of it arose.
Me and my best friend still stayed close even though she went to school in Virginia and I went to school in North Carolina. She always made a point to call and text and send me sweet or funny reels on Instagram. God really blessed me with her because most of the time in our lives, our current events and life lessons always match up with each others. God is cool like that.
College was also the first time in my life where I really got attention from guys. I didn’t really mind it much but not all attention is great. But, thankfully most of the guys that ever liked me were all very sweet and kind, and I can’t say a bad thing about them.
College was not the first time I faced rejection though. When I got rejected for my writing, that was the most painful rejection that I have ever faced. I started writing for my school newspaper around August or September of 2024. The first month of me working there, all of my works were rejected. I remember walking back to my dorm at night and crying, asking God if I was a bad writer. I remember telling Him that I was going to quit and just around that time one of my editors graduated and thence got replaced, and finally, my work started getting published.
I told God that I wanted to start a blog at that time too because I felt like I couldn’t say the things I wanted to say in the newspapers. I felt like I was a little too frilly with my diction and extensive with my syntax, and since creative writing is my niche, everything had a touch of big words in there and a bit of a bloggy feel. God is good though; I did make this blog by His grace and help because I procrastinated this for a really long time. And my new editor and my other editor really worked with me with my writing and I felt like they liked my style.
Looking back at all of the things that have happened in freshman year, I do feel a sense of sadness as summer comes into view. Don’t get me wrong: I am nothing short of ecstatic to be done with my treacherous statistics teacher and my cumbersome finals, but I can’t deny that I’m going to miss my friends. There were even some people who I got close with just before the school year was over, and I wish that I got to know them for longer.
But, nevertheless, God is good and everything works out well. I feel like the greatest gift that I have received this year was guidance. God has been immensely patient with me. When I was in high school, I was just so mentally immature about certain things and so ditzy about life. I think as you age, you naturally mature. I’m going to be 20 this year and I feel like some of my ditzy and obsessive ways are leaving me, and it is all because of God’s guidance.
Life is moving really fast, but that’s good because it’s a sign that you’re enjoying it. Freshman year is over but I am really hopeful for the future and really excited about what is to come. My mind is more mature and is still maturing, and I am thinking about how I can improve everyday. I am writing more, completing more word searches, reading more books, and also watching jaguars and lions hunt on National Geographic more often (they are so interesting).
God is good and I have realized that the more you live your life for Him, the better life becomes. God makes life lovely. God makes life radiant and lively. So many intriguing people have crossed my path, and I have made so many friendships that my heart has become full to the brim with joy to the point where it is overflowing.