Transition To College

When a student is transitioning from the home life into the life of a college student, it can be very difficult. Accustomed to a structured home life provided by ones parents, the individual may find difficulty keeping the same structure in college. Often a fear of failure is exhibited by the student when making the transition to college. Jim Rohn reminds individuals, “Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.” The fear of having to take the initiative can be overwhelming and one may fail, but change is a way to reach success. For a college student to successfully begin life on their own requires self-esteem, creation of self-image, and self-improvement. While many feel that failure is an indication of lack of self-improvement, …show more content…
One feels like they must excel in things as effortlessly as they did in high school. Unaware that the college curriculum is much more rigorous than that in high school, individuals will be inclined to feel as if they have failed. One's parents no longer dictate decision making, it is now left to the student. Having this responsibility forces the individual to take full credit for their actions. In addition, students are pressured to follow their parents’ footsteps and often times feel overwhelmed. With the expectation of exceeding their parents’ accomplishments, students often times feel like a failure when they don’t measure up. Each example of failure or the anxiety of failure are the reason why self-improvement is so important to one’s success. Whether one fails or succeeds, there is something that they can take away from the lesson and use toward self-improvement. Pauline Estrem, author of the article Why Failure is Good for Success states to “Consciously maintain a positive attitude so that, no matter what you encounter, you’ll be able to see the lessons of the experience and continue to push forward.” So, when one is experiencing failure they must be reminded that failure is a sure sign of