By Ashley Yenick, Student at Merrimack College

Going into college, I had my own idea of what I wanted to do and how I wanted to be. I wanted to have a college experience like they have in the movies: living with your best friends, having easy classes (with hardly any homework) and having an awesome social live.

Well, I was wrong. Actually … really wrong.

I’ve come to a conclusion (now that I'm in my junior year of college) that you can’t always get what you want. Things are different then the way you wanted them to be. College is about making the best of things, and if you can’t do that and live with the cards you’ve been dealt, it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

There are a couple of things I've learned along the way:

Easy classes
Not to scare you, but there’s no such thing as an “easy class.” Rome wasn’t built in a day, and college educations aren't either. There’s going to be work you have to put in to get a good grade. I thought entering college that it was going to be easy and that your teacher would just give you an A for turning in your essays and your homework on time. Wrong!

Having a kick-ass social life
Every movie about college life shows a bunch of kids having fun and not doing homework. In college, you have to balance your time between having a social life and actually doing homework. There’s going to be times when you have a project due on Monday and some of your friends will be having a party or having "Sunday Funday." You’re going to be making the tough decision of either hanging out or keeping your grades up.

Getting a hot boyfriend the first month of school
I was so naive in thinking that college would be different when it comes to dating. I thought I was going to step foot on campus and have a boy completely sweep me off my feet and already be dating him by my second class of the day. Boys in my high school were extremely immature and they didn’t want relationships. I thought that since college guys are more mature, they'd be more into making a commitment … I was wrong about that, too. But not every guy is immature – there are guys out there that do want relationships; it’s just going to take you a little time to find them and weed out the bad ones.

College is a great experience, so enjoy it! Remember, you can’t always get what you want, but you have to fight some bad days to have the best days of your life. Don’t ever give up on anything … and that includes your dreams.

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