I  go to Morgan State, I  am a sophomore biology major on the pre-professional track (Morgan’s version of Pre-Med) with a minor in psychology. I hope to be a neuroscientist and study drug effects in the brain and look into neurological diseases. My freshman year was extremely hard; it really tested me mentally, financially, and socially. I  learned a lot through my mistakes so hopefully someone reads this and learns them the easy way. The first major thing I had to learn was that everyone is not your real friend. It sounds like a lesson you would think is obvious but in college you form bonds with people so much faster because you’re basically living with them. You spend loads of time with them and open up a lot. Unfortunately not everyone’s intentions are as pure as yours so I had to learn how much information to share and how much of myself to share at a time.The second thing I learned was that I had to do it for me. You can’t go to college for your mom or your family; if you’re gonna do it you have to do it for yourself. If you’re in your major because that’s what your mom wants you to do you aren’t going to be happy and you aren’t going to get the most of your experience.  With that being said I learned also to use all your resources. I was struggling to pay my tuition and rent. Next thing you know, just by talking about it to my advisor she found me a job on campus. The boss for my job ended up being really close to the scholarship advisor. The scholarship advisor found a scholarship to cover the rest of my tuition. It really is all about who you know and using the best of your resources. I  learned how to be proactive, not reactive. Meaning I learned to prepare for everything that way if anything happened I wouldn’t be just reacting I would have already prepared for it. In college a lot of things happen on a day to day basis and you have to learn how to just roll with the punches and make something out of it. When I   say I learned to prepare for everything I had to learn how to plan out everything in advance so I  was always ready. These are just a couple of the gems I learned my first year that I know I will apply to the rest of my life.