A lot of us go to college, planning on reinventing ourselves. Sometimes that’s a great thing. Other times, it actually may be negative.
So, if you are one of those thinking about totally reinventing yourself, here are a few things for you to consider.
1. What are you running away from?
When I went to college, I was SO ready for a clean slate. I was tired of being Michael Easley’s daughter (aka the preacher’s daughter of a large church) and just wanted to be known as Hanna. I was also ready to leave behind a lot of the relational messes I had made (ex-boyfriends, girls that I had a lot of conflict with, you get the idea…)
I needed a fresh start. It’s not wrong to want a fresh start. In fact, it’s great to get do-overs! Everyone deserves a chance to be the best version of themselves and sometimes that hard to do when everyone around you knows all your past goof-ups and mistakes.
BUT we still need to be cautious and evaluate our motives. So what are you running away from? Is it something you actually need to clean up before moving on? Is it something you’ll regret leaving behind?
2. What are you running towards?
So you want to reinvent yourself. Great. Who are you going to be? What are you running towards? Does it align with your personal beliefs and values? Are you striving to be genuinely YOU or are you striving to fit in as best as you can? What do you want your reputation to be? What do you want people to say about you when you leave the room? Do yourself a favor and IDENTIFY who you want to be & what your values are. Write them down or verbally process them with someone. You can’t just reinvent yourself blindly. You must do it with purpose.
3. Who are you going to surround yourself with?
At the end of the day, you are going to look exactly like the group of friends you choose. So if you want to reinvent yourself, you need to look for friends that look like you want to look like. Choose friends who share the same values as you. Choose friends who have strong character. Choose friends who are loyal. If you just go along with the first group of friends you meet, I guarantee you will end up looking just like them and probably won’t like yourself, OR you’ll eventually walk away from them and start your friend search process all over.
So go for it. Be whoever it is that you want to be. You’re getting a clean slate and that’s amazing. Just make sure you’re being intentional and careful about who you are surrounding yourself with and ultimately who you are crafting yourself to be.
