Thirty hours, three countries and one eternally tired student later, I had finally arrived at college. 

It was pitch dark when my journey from Kathmandu, Nepal, to Seoul, Korea, to Atlanta, Ga., and finally to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport came to an end. 

When I was dropped off at 9 p.m. in front of the Hurst Hall, “Five Hundred Miles” by Bobby Bare was playing on my AirPods —  though technically, I was more than 5,000 miles away from my home.

Excited to move into my new room, I walked up to the check-in desk. That is when the RA on duty told me that, due to housing availability issues, I was not assigned a permanent room yet. Instead, I would have to live with her until a vacancy opened up. 

“Why me, why always me?” should have been my first thought, especially after my flight from Atlanta was delayed by five hours due to a storm. But honestly, my brain was too tired, too rawly emotional. And at that moment, it was Miley Cyrus’s voice that floated through my mind: 

“There’s always gonna be another mountain, I’m always gonna wanna make it move.” 

Advice no. 1: Expect the unexpected and keep going. 

It was the first of many mountains that came my way. You never know what will happen in four years. 

There are days I have not slept because I procrastinated too long for a final project. There are days when the rejections — from everywhere — stacked higher than I could count. 

But you have to keep going. So, just because I didn’t get the chance to make my first roommate connection did not mean I had to stop trying to build other ones, right?

Freshman me thought: “Who needs new connections when I already have friends that I have known since middle school?” I did not realize how much I was missing — and by the time I did, many already had found their new circles. 

According to a poll by Elon University of over 4,000 college students, 79% of graduates said they met peers who had the biggest impact on them during their first year. 

Maybe that is why freshman year is the best time to make friends. As High School Musical once sang: “We’re all in this together.”

Advice no. 2:  Take advantage of being in the same boat.

It is not only you who is searching for new friends or looking for an organization that fits your interests. It is not only you who is having a hard time adjusting. 

Commonality gives birth to friendship. If you branch out early, you will find that shared uncertainty can be the bridge to the start of something wonderful. So, make yourself open to trying different friendships. 

Not every connection will work out. As with friendship, not every interest or passion you bring with you will click. 

And when the inevitable losing happens, you have two choices: contemplate on why it didn’t work, or – as Taylor Swift taught me best – “Shake it off.”

Advice no. 3: Learn to take things lightly, move on, and find new passions without guilt. 

Sometimes the club you loved one semester will not feel like home the next. Sometimes you will change faster than you expect. 

You may not realize how central adaptability is to college life, but it will open doors you do not even see yet, and it will prepare you for life after college in ways you can not predict. 

Dan Brodnitz, head of global content at LinkedIn Learning, wrote about adaptability in his article about The Most In-Demand Skills for 2024.

“Adaptability and agility are mission-critical for both people and organizations,” Brodnitz’s article read.

Even while you are adjusting and choosing new passions, there is another challenge you will face every day: How hard should you try? How much heart should you put into your work? Your friendships? Your dreams? Sometimes you will wonder if it is even worth giving your best. 

And then you will remember — as Imagine Dragons put it: “Whatever it takes/ ‘Cause I love the adrenaline in my veins.”

Advice no. 4: Do not be afraid to give your best to the things that matter. 

One of the best pieces of advice that has come to me is from Brett Harvey, director of Federal Regulatory Compliance and coach of MSU Speech and Debate.

“It’s usually about 80-90% as hard to do something in a mediocre way as it is to do it very well,” Harvey said. “The time, the money, will normally be almost as much to be average (or worse) as to be really good. So why not just go ahead and throw in that last 10-20% and get the best result you can?”

It stuck with me. It is not about being perfect, it is about putting your heart and your best effort into the work you choose to do. 

No matter how much advice you follow, even if I could go back in time and follow my own advice perfectly, I know it still would not feel like enough. 

And that is okay, as Loren Allred reminds us:  “These hands could hold the world, but it’ll never be enough, never be enough for me.”

Advice no. 5: Even your best will not feel like enough sometimes – and that’s okay. 

Our university has so much to offer. There are so many people you have not met yet. So many clubs to join. So many events to attend. Embrace the incompleteness. Take every day as a new day in Starkville, trust the process. 

When you are here for orientation, or scrolling through all kinds of advice like this one, just know: I came to Starkville without even a virtual tour. And somehow — despite everything — I found my home here. 

And so will you.