Romanticizing Your Life at a Smaller School

Oct 19

What No One Tells You About College

You know that feeling when you open Instagram on a Friday night and suddenly it seems like everyone is having the best college experience except you?

Someone at a huge university is at a football game with 60,000 people. Someone else is posting a photo of a packed fraternity party. Someone is studying abroad in Europe. Someone has a huge friend group that somehow all dresses the same, goes everywhere together, and looks like they have their entire college life figured out.

Meanwhile, you are sitting in your dorm wondering if you made the right choice.

If you have felt this way during your first year, you are definitely not alone.

The FOMO (fear of missing out) stage is something I think almost everyone goes through, especially during their freshman year. It is so easy to compare your college experience to what you see online, and this can feel even more intense when you attend a smaller school like ours.

But here is what no one tells you before college: your college experience is not supposed to look like anyone else’s.

One of the hardest parts about going to a smaller school is that sometimes it can feel like you are missing out.

There might not be thousands of students walking around campus. You might not have a giant football stadium packed every Saturday. You might see videos from bigger universities and think, Why doesn't my college look like that?

But smaller schools have their own kind of magic.

You start recognizing people around campus. Your professor knows your name. You randomly run into your friends while getting coffee. You can walk across campus without needing a map. Events can feel more personal because you actually see familiar faces.

Instead of wishing your school was bigger, try noticing the things that make it feel like home.

Romanticize the Little Things

Romanticizing your life does not mean pretending everything is perfect. It means allowing yourself to appreciate the small moments that you might normally overlook.

Get your favorite Starbucks drink before your morning class. Put on an outfit that makes you feel good, even if you are only going to the library. Take a walk around campus when the weather is nice. Make a playlist for your walk to class. Study somewhere new just because you can.

Have a late-night conversation with your roommate. Go get food at the Lair with people you barely know. Take pictures when everyone is dressed up for an event. Sit outside on the hammocks and do absolutely nothing for a little while.

These moments might not look impressive on Instagram, but they are the moments you will remember.

Stop Measuring Your College Experience by Instagram

Social media makes it really easy to believe that everyone else is having more fun than you.

But you are seeing the party, not the awkward Uber ride home. You are seeing the friend group picture, not the argument that happened five minutes before. You are seeing the study abroad post, not the homesickness. Everyone's life looks better in a 10-second Instagram story. And honestly, you do not need to prove that you are having fun.

You do not have to go out every weekend. You do not need 20 best friends. You do not need to be involved in everything. You do not need to constantly be doing something worth posting. Your college experience is still happening when your phone is in your pocket.

Let Yourself Be a Freshman

I think one of the biggest mistakes we make during freshman year is expecting ourselves to immediately know who we are.

You might change your friend group. You might realize you do not like the major you thought you would. You might become more involved than you expected. You might become less involved. You might find people you never expected to be friends with. That is okay. College is not just about getting a degree. It is also about figuring out what kind of person you want to become.

So try things. Go to the event even if you do not know anyone. Sit next to someone new in class. Join the club you keep seeing advertised. Go to that campus event you almost skipped. Talk to someone in your dorm. Say “yes” sometimes, but also learn that saying “no” is okay. You do not have to find your people immediately.

Your Life Does Not Have to Be Big to Be Meaningful

Maybe the best part about going to a smaller school is that your experience does not have to be loud to be important. You can build traditions with a few friends instead of hundreds of people. You can become close with professors and staff. You can find your favorite study spot. You can have the same coffee order every Tuesday morning. You can know which campus events you actually enjoy. One day, those ordinary things might become the memories you miss the most.

So if you are a first-year student looking around and wondering if you are doing college "right," take a breath. You are not behind. You are not missing your chance. And you are definitely not the only person who has spent a Friday night scrolling through someone else's college experience and wondering if yours should look different. Your college experience does not have to look like a movie. It does not have to look like a TikTok video. And it definitely does not have to look like a school with 40,000 students.

Let yourself romanticize the life you actually have because someday, you might realize that the little campus you once thought was too small was where some of your biggest memories happened.

Ria Bansal

Ria Bansal is The Pacifican’s Managing Editor and is a Pre-Dentristry major and Biology major with a minor in Psychology. She is part of clubs, Tiger team, and Bio/Psych research. She loves to bake and cook, read, and watch TV. Bansal is so excited to continue on staff because she loves the idea of the Pacifican and how it brings together a community within the school, and she’s really excited to edit all the pieces.