Dear Freshman Sarah,
Congratulations on making it to your dream school. You did it!
I know that life right now is overwhelming. Your bed in VCW isn’t uncomfortable, but it’s nothing like the one in your own familiar room at home. You’re fine with the pasta line at Leo’s, but you can’t help tear up as you remember the smell of mom’s homemade spaghetti wafting through your door at dinnertime. You’ve met some new people and they’re perfectly nice, but it seems like everyone else has already met their one true best friend. You were at the top of your class in high school back in Antioch, yet you feel behind here. Why do people already know so much about the intricacies of global political economics? What is global political economics?
First of all, I want you to know that you’re going to surprise yourself. I want you to know that all of these things, with time, will become almost second nature to you. You’ll gain a better grasp on your schoolwork, on how to study well… in fact, you’re going to do really well in that global political economics class, believe it or not.
You will meet some incredible people that will give you the honor of calling them your best friends. Right now you might not remember that girl’s name you met in Leo’s during the first week of school, but over time you two will become inseparable. By your senior year, you won’t be able to imagine life without her as your best friend/soul sister/roommate/future bridesmaid/you get the picture.
You will absolutely love it here, I promise you. But I want you to know that you are not required to fall unconditionally in love with Georgetown. These will be unbelievably formative years in your life, but they might not be the best four years in your life. And that’s okay. The fun moments, the laughter and the memories you’ll cherish forever will be endless, but I want to talk to you a little bit about the less perfect times, the harder moments, because they’ll come too. I hope you learn to embrace the imperfection and realize that sometimes it’s okay to not be okay.
You’ll fail at some things (hello, I-Trade midterm), and that’s going to feel new and hard. But you’ll come back from it. You’ll learn that failure is such a crucial part of life and can most times actually push you to succeed (hello, I-Trade final).
There will be a time when people will hurt you and you’ll question who you are. You’ll cry in UG while pouring your life out to Jon Rice and you’ll take a step in humility to go to CAPS for a semester. And it’s going to make you realize just how incredible therapy can be and that you don’t have to be put together all the time, because, truth be told, nobody is.
You don’t know what you want to do with your life now and I hate to break it to you, when the beginning of senior year rolls around, you won’t know then either. The difference is that the anxiety and stress of needing to know will be so much more subdued. You’ll have a better idea of what you love and don’t love to do, and you’ll be so much more at peace because you’ll have found time and time again that things really do always work out in the end.
Finally, you’ll doubt, grapple with, and for a long period even feel bitter about your faith. You’ll be angry with God and you’ll wonder if He even exists or if He even cares. But please just remember that in all of it, He’s there. And He’ll show you down the road, even from where I’m writing now, just how present He’s been through it all, even when you didn’t want to have anything to do with Him. That doubt will make you search for answers and it will solidify your belief to withstand trials to come.
You are going to grow so much. You’ll be grateful for every bump and bruise down the road because through it, you will become humbled and more mature. You’re going to learn that you have so much more to learn. And that prospect is going to be really exciting. Trust me; I’m here now and I’m so excited for what’s to come.
You’re gonna kill it. I believe in you.
Love,
Sarah