Staying True to Yourself

While in first year, I was bombarded with many new things, mostly good, but some bad. Being quite a bit younger than everyone else, I had to put on my toughest skin and stay true to myself. I wasn't rigid; some of what I'd thought I'd decided turned out to be just unrealistic. It was OK to wear somewhat more revealing clothes than I had before, or to drink a bit more than I'd previously thought suitable. Nothing important was being compromised.

Certain things were being pushed on me that I had to say no to. Yes you're right: drunkenness, drugs, sex beyond a certain point, things like that. People were sometimes quite unrelenting at first, but eventually they did take the hint and stopped pressuring me. I stayed to true to myself and didn’t compromise certain things in first year. Later on, these same people would come up to me and say how they admired me for that and how they wished they were more like me.

As much as you try to make friends and try new things, sometimes you can be the only one who is unwilling to move on your values and your decisions about them. It might feel lonely at the time, but in the end you will not regret it, and others will have noticed as well.

After those years at University, you need to still be yourself. Whether or not you are happy with what you did in University will depend on the decisions you've made while you were there.