Heading off to college is one of the biggest changes in a young person’s life. The world is finally in your hands and you have the opportunity to make of it what you want. With this comes an overwhelming amount of ambiguity, doubt, and fear. Though the change poses great possibilities, these other emotions can often take the front lines of students’ minds.
Reading For Survival
I know that when I went to college, I let these emotions control my actions. They led me to the wrong school, the wrong major, and so much pain. However, I found myself out of these deep emotions through reading. My freshman year of college was a huge year of reading for me — at a point, I was going through a book a week. Not only that but being in so many English classes and writing courses led me to books that I wouldn’t normally pick up. These stories eased my stress and doubt through shared tales of overwhelming uncertainty. So many of the writers I enjoyed penned their own concerns with such change and reassured opportunity and positivity.
These books were crucial to the approach of my school year. They sent me support when I felt lost in my decision-making. Reading, as it so often does, showed sanctuary. For new upcoming college freshmen, finding these voices is essential to aid in the first year at college. Books that can change how you think or view the world around you are especially significant in a moment of great change. These novels are perfect for just that. They bring reassurance, offer new perspectives, bring comradery to isolation, and encourage thoughtful mindsets.
About Surviving and Navigating College
The Freshman Survival Guide by Nora Bradbury-Haehl and Bill McGarvey
McGarvey and Bradbury-Haehl detail a selection of topics important to shed light on when stepping onto a college campus for the first time. From social media to culture change to sexual assault, the book sets out to forget the taboo and bring an honest approach to difficult subjects. This book was published in 2011, so some of the information and details are slightly dated but the messages and lessons the writers set out to provide are crucial to new college students.
How to College by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope Schwartz
Written by professors Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope Schwartz, How to College works to assist students and families through the transition to college. The pair acknowledge the higher levels of stress that freshmen have been exhibiting year after year and the increasing ambiguity of college for freshmen. The professors use their own knowledge and research alongside their experiences to create a plain view of university life that makes the transition easier for new students. The book acts as an honest depiction of college for those who fear the unknown.
Autobiographies on Youth and Change
Everybody Else Is Perfect by Gabrielle Korn
This one is near and dear to my heart. Korn’s book details her exploration of her sexuality, her endurance through uncertainty, and the constant feeling that everyone else is perfect. Her experiences are incredibly powerful and relatable. Through her life, she exposes the same intimacies and hardships that many young people face. She reveals the way she navigated these hurdles and acknowledges when she made the wrong choice. Most of all, Korn encourages a mindset that opposes the exact rhetoric of her title.
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? By Mindy Kaling
Another sweetheart in my eyes, Mindy Kaling’s first autobiography delves into many of the questions young new college students ask themselves. Kaling discusses her transition into college and the doubts she held in her classrooms and with her major. She discusses her dreams and how those dreams changed over time, revealing new parts of her identity and lifestyle. Kaling also details the importance of choosing the right people to surround yourself with. She praises those with whom she was able to find friendship and challenges. One of the most important topics that Kaling discusses — a throughline to life — are the mistakes she’s made and knowing when to step away. These are important messages for any young person to hear, read, and learn from, and Kaling presents them with honesty and humor.
Essays on Adulthood and Life
I’ll Tell You in Person by Chloe Cadwell
Chloe Cadwell takes her life experiences and turns them into lessons for the reader. As a new way to look at adulthood, Cadwell recounts her mistakes in getting older and facing change. She recounts the times when she’s been lost, in pain, or addicted — a true tale of her wrongs and the ways she hopes to grow from them. These essays preach to the reader the reality of getting older while offering a hope that mistakes are okay; it’s the way you react to mistakes that matters.
How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right by Pandora Sykes
In this collection of essays, journalist Pandora Sykes covers topics that get lost in a year of college transition. Sykes talks about burnout and learning to deal with and recover from it. She discusses current culture and cancel culture and societal trends. Most importantly, for college freshmen, Sykes talks about anxieties and social myths. She writes in detail about the lies we are told and how to combat them. Her experience as a journalist has given her a trained eye for spotting disinformation and falsehoods. In How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right, Sykes preps readers with the same knowledge she’s developed through experience to lead to a stronger approach to culture and society — a much-needed ability for college freshmen.
Finding Confidence and Your Voice
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
As Carnegie’s title suggests, this book discusses how to make friends; however, that’s not all it does. Carnegie’s book delves into how to communicate effectively, how to address problems, how to function in social situations — overall, the book discusses all there is to know about public and social behaviors. For those that may be nervous about social situations or those that need a little extra help with public speaking, this is the perfect read. As a college freshman, being exposed to lots of people as well as many personalities is a given. This book helps with navigating those personalities.
You Belong Here by Kim Dabbs
Kim breaks through the many barriers of personal identity. She explains the different sections of defining yourself and labeling who you are. The book gives the reader a set of activities and questions to ask oneself to find out who they are. Most of all, at the center of the book is the message that you are not defined by how others view you. In the first year of college, it’s difficult to separate your identity from others; that’s why Dabbs’s book is so important.
Reading helped me in this time of confusion and identity. For anyone starting out at university, these books are a great selection of titles to read at such an important change in your life.
Need a suggestion for a book to help you through dark times? Check out these five titles that inspire courage from Bookstr.
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