From Struggles to Success: Navigating College Life in the U.S.

My freshman year at college was a big challenge for me. Can you imagine being away from studying for 6 years and then becoming a full-time student taking 4 classes a week? That doesn't sound really bad but doing it is something that can be a challenge if English is not your first language. 

The first time I arrived at Truckee Meadows Community College (TMCC) I was sure that I was ready for this but also I forgot that I still had really bad habits that I needed to change so I learned many things during the first two semesters of college (some of them the hard way!):  

1. Procrastination is not good!! PRIORITIZE what’s important.

I had a degree in the area of procrastination. I have been procrastinating since I can remember. To be honest, I think I started this bad habit since middle school. I always waited until the last minute to do the projects that would take me hours to finish and then cried and stressed out because I felt overwhelmed. 

Believe it or not, despite all these stressful situations I did not learn anything and I continued doing it for over 12 years, and not just with school but in every aspect of my life. Until I got to college and realized college and university classes are not a joke. Once you get behind in one class, it’s gonna be hard to catch up. It's like an avalanche of homework that falls on you and suffocates you. Due to this, I got very overwhelmed, I could barely sleep and my concentration was getting bad. 

Tip: Do your assignments as soon as they are assigned and if you don't have time the same day, at least try to do a part of the work. Especially if they are big projects, start working ahead even though you think you have plenty of time to do it. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that you have all the time in the world because you will end up doing the assignment on the due date at 11:50 pm. And most important, PRIORITIZE! There is no better feeling than going out and knowing that you don't have to worry about coming home to finish your homework.

2. Making friends and boundaries

Everyone wants someone to tell stories, laugh and go on adventures. Especially when you are an international student, friends are a great support when homesickness kicks in! When I first came to TMCC, I met my friend Dylana from Costa Rica, an international student like me. We got along so well! And now we are as close as Panama and Costa Rica :).  

Unfortunately when it comes to interacting with people, I had a problem with boundaries and saying “no” so not all of my experiences have been very pleasant, and I have had one or two uncomfortable situations where some people had misunderstood friendliness with flirting. 

Tip: No matter how uncomfortable it is, don't be scared to say “no” or set your boundaries every time you meet someone new. I think often we don’t want to hurt people’s feelings, but I have been learning from my peers around me that there is nothing wrong with feeling that way. A true friend will understand it. 

3. Office hours are a great support to succeed in classes

To be honest, this is one of the resources that I thought was not a big help (the funny thing is that I had never attended office hours) so I never used it during my first semester until I saw myself struggling with coding projects in my second semester. It was then that I decided to turn to my computer science professor for help. And you have no idea how helpful this was! The professor checked all of my work and gave me feedback. 

Don’t waste this opportunity, It will help you improve your grade plus create a good relationship with your professors. 

Tip: Try to get your work, or question you want to ask, ready before going to office hours. That way when the professor finishes helping you, the only thing you’ll have to do after will be to correct everything, and you’ll be done. I used to do this every time I needed to write a coding project. I wrote all the code by myself and then took it to the professor for feedback. Once he is done, I just have to fix it and that's it. 

How these experiences benefitted me

All these experiences have helped to improve my academic success and my personal life as well. I still have three more semesters to learn, so I just hope you won’t have to hear about my challenges with procrastination again. Also remember, we have to be realistic and know it is not easy to adapt to these new changes because we come from a different country with a different culture (but it is not an excuse to not to try them) so learning these practices and making them a habit will take time. One thing I am sure of is that once you start studying for the first time in the U.S you will be surprised how much you have changed and learned!! 

I am excited to see you in my next blog :)

Brenda Rodriguez from Panama is an international student at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nevada.