At this very moment you are probably indulging in leftovers from the holiday.  While now is a good time to enjoy the break from school, this is also a good time for you to reflect on the semester. When you first arrived to campus you must have had some sort of expectations, a picture, or thoughts of what you thought college would be.  Were you accurate?  Have your experiences surpassed your expectations or have your experiences underwhelmed what you hoped college would be?

Thanksgiving break is an excellent time to reflect on your first semester. This is the time (especially if you go home) when family will ask how is college going? They will ask about grades and friends and professors and organizations and any special people that may be in your life. Consider your responses to these questions. Are you happy (satisfied) with your college experience thus far. If your answer is “no,” take this time to consider if it is you or the institution.  Ask yourself the following:

·     Are you doing all that you can do to make your college experience the best one you can make?

·     Are you giving your all to your studies?

·     Have you joined a student organization?

·     Are you stepping out of your comfort zone and trying new things and meeting new people?

·     Are you growing as a person? Are you the same person today that you were at the beginning of the semester?

If you can say that you have done all that you could do and you are can still say that your college experience is not measuring up to what you’d expected, then you may want to consider making a change or transferring schools. If you are not happy and you see ways you can make a change, I encourage you to make those changes.  Be brave; start your own club or run for a student government position to help evoke change and leave your mark on campus.  If evoking change on campus does not suite you, consider researching schools that speak to who you are or who you would like to become. 

These are tough questions to ask and will need to answer at some point in your college career.  The earlier you can get to bottom of these questions the sooner you can make the necessary changes.  These are difficult decisions and you should not have to process them alone.  There are counselors on campus that can help process your thoughts, feelings, and concerns.  Make an appointment and see if you can get to the bottom of making your college experience the best it can be.