By: Zoe Shulevitz
OSU College of Business & OSU Honors College
First-year student
Hello!
My name is Zoe Shulevitz, and I am an incoming OSU College of Business and Honors College freshman from Portland, Oregon. Since my old high school, St. Mary’s Academy, was situated on the PSU campus, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to familiarize myself with the buzz of campus living.
However, I had been battling anxiety due to lack of confidence in my abilities to take care of myself without my parents’ immediate support. In order to build up my confidence in living alone, I decided to participate in the OSU faculty led trip to London. It was a great experience!
I faced situations that used to scare me (for example: planning out my meals, being in charge of my finances, flying in an airplane without my family members, and organizing my schedule around both my social life and schoolwork). However, by treating these situations as opportunities to learn and grow, I approached each situation with patience and positivity.
I learned a lot about how to deal with tough situations and gained confidence each time I had to figure out a way to handle a situation that used to make me feel anxious. By pushing myself far out of my comfort zone, I learned so much about myself, how I operate and how I need to take care of myself in the future.
I’m excited to take this newfound knowledge into college with me in the next few months, I know it will be very useful. I want to encourage any incoming freshman that are reading this who might hold similar fears as me to try and face as many fears as possible in the next coming weeks.
I promise, the situations that look impossible right now look much less important and terrifying once you’re on the other side. I know you can do it!
Other than facing my fears head on, the bulk of my college preparation has been filled with a lot of positive self talk. Going into college is scary, and even scarier when we factor in our own self-doubt. Therefore, I have made it my mission to not only build up my confidence in living alone, but my confidence in myself.
Having a positive mindset goes a long way towards helping us to feel comfortable and ready for college. Maybe even excited! Now, I’m feeling very prepared for college and also very excited! I’m especially looking forward to meeting a bunch of new people, having great conversations, practicing Japanese, working on my metacognitive skills, and growing as an individual.
I can’t wait to see what college has in store for me!
