<p>I'm a graduation Senior from HS and I would like your guy's experience as a fresh college freshmen. Did you reinvent yourself and if so, what were you before and after. Plus how effective was it?</p>
<p>-Justin</p>
<p>Don’t reinvent yourself… be yourself. Trust me.</p>
<p>Just remember the mistakes you made in the past and change gradually, learning from them and from the ones you will make in the future. College isn’t this magical experience where you become somebody new overnight…</p>
<p>Don’t try too hard to be somebody you’re not. I agree with Beef, build off of yourself. Don’t look at college as an opportunity to reinvent yourself, look at it as though you have been given a clean slate and you can avoid making the same stupid mistakes you might have made in high school.</p>
<p>Change and grow, yes (which takes time and hard work, but stays with you)</p>
<p>Reinvent, no (which involves trying to be someone you’re not, and always catches up with you, making you look like an idiot)</p>
<p>Don’t expect to change radically over night. By the time you graduate, you will have changed many aspects of your character, personality, and beliefs. I didn’t fully notice these changes until I was twenty so it may take a while for these traits to fully become noticeable.</p>
<p>You change at all ages so don’t be so worried about pushing all these changes into one year. Let yourself develop at its own pace. You won’t be the same person next year as you were in high school. You won’t be the same person at 25 as you were in college.</p>
<p>One of my nice friends from senior year changed dramatically over his freshman year. He went from being this friendly short and goofy indian guy into a player who smokes hookah all the time. Those seem to go hand in hand but he’s very different and wears different clothes. He has a lot more friends now actually (from a different crowd he was used to). He has a lot more confidence now but in my opinion he’s a big fake. Whatever floats your boat.</p>
<p>If there is a time to reinvent yourself, I’d say college is the best time though.</p>
<p>Take more risks. You sound like you have a very calculating and analytical mind. Instead of inventing a new personality, just take more risks with your current one. It sounds like you don’t have much to loose socially so I wouldn’t be afraid of looking dumb. </p>
<p>Next time you hear of any type of social gathering just go. You’ll start thinking of reasons why you shouldn’t go, or even worse, how you’ll go next time when something is just right. </p>
<p>F that, just go with the flow and stop analyzing everything.</p>
<p>Sure. It’s all about changing your habits.</p>
<p>I wrote about it on my blog today. The crux of it is that “who you are” is unchangeable because it is independent of external things, but the actions you take are definitely changeable. You can go from a socially awkward dude to someone who is outgoing. I did.</p>
<p>It isn’t easy though, since you need to change a habit that has been reinforced for years- that of not being social.</p>
<p>-Caligula</p>
<p>Yes you can. Go for it and do not hesitate. The time to do it is now so practice your social skills and even read books and websites about such things. The sooner the better. If you don’t follow through you will feel the same way next year.</p>
<p>i wanted to reinvent myself, but it didn’t happen.
i even chose to introduce myself by a nickname (just a short version of my name) rather than my full name, because i’ve always wanted to be called that and i thought it would help with the reinventing thing. now i HATE being called by that nickname. it was a relief to come home and not have to hear it anymore.
at the beginning of school, i was quiet (very unlike me) because i was trying to supress my natural urges and become someone else. it was highly ineffective. i wound up bursting out of my shell after about a month. and guess what? people actually warmed up to me and liked me better when i was myself! as if they could tell i wasn’t being normal.
to quote the show ‘my so-called life’: People are always saying you should be yourself, like yourself is this definite thing, like a toaster. Like you know what it is even.
that’s how i always felt when people said “just be yourself and everyone will like you/you’ll be happy/etc.” how DO you know what it is? yourself isn’t a definite thing, it morphs and changes from minute to minute in different situations, and it also subtly changes over time.
so my advice to you: DON’T OVERTHINK IT. go to college with a general idea of something you’d like to change about yourself, but don’t make it a personality overhaul. act like you normally would with anyone you just met. act like however you like to act, but seriously, how YOU LIKE to act. don’t act a certain way because you think that’s the way popular girls act or athletic guys or smart girls or whoever act. it won’t be enjoyable for anyone, especially you.
if you’re going to college without anyone you know, your reputation is completely fresh. and really, isn’t that what you’re talking about? if it isn’t, it should be. you’ll build a new reputation of whatever it is you are, instead of being remembered as that kid who threw up in the middle of an assembly in 5th grade or who made out with half the high school.</p>
<p>sorry for my ideas being completely scattered, but i hope you get whatever it is i’m trying to say. ;)</p>
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</p>
<p>What if you are the problem? Just sayin’</p>
<p>The best part about going away to school is that no one knows anything about you. You have a clean slate. So picture the person in your mind that you’ve always wanted to be and be that person. Just because you wore sweat pants, billabong, and new balance every day in high school doesn’t mean you have to in college. Just because you were shy doesn’t mean you have to be shy anymore.</p>
<p>Have the courage to be who you want to be, expand your personality and develop a style. A full transformation won’t happen over night, take baby steps. You have to push your boundaries if you want to change, you have to experiment.</p>
<p>Take a wide variety of classes
Get drunk with your friends
Try exotic food you’ve never had
Date someone who is exactly your type
Date someone who is exactly the opposite of your type
Start conversations with random people</p>
<p>College is too expensive for you to waste all your time studying when down the road you won’t remember half of what you learned in class. I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to get good grades. If you want to go to graduate school then tack on research to the of that list. Best of luck!</p>