Last night I visited my cousin at college. I’d only interacted with her as a child before this. Therefore, I was excited to finally interact with her as I interact with peers and adults. She’s doing impressive things, and I was full of hope.
While it’s great to see family, and she has significant accomplishments already, I think my expectations were a little unreasonable. I forgot that this is her first year at college. She has freshman problems with academic stress, freshman roommate problems, and a freshman boyfriend. In many ways, first-year college students are more like high school seniors than they are like new college graduates. This should not be surprising, and isn’t, but I lost sight of it in this situation, and am feeling crummier this morning as a result.
Interact with people as they are, not as you would like them to be. You’ll be happier for it (and so will they). If your assumptions are wrong, change your assumptions.
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