You're listening to the Water into Wine podcast hosted by Grace Valentine.

Hello everybody and welcome back to another edition of the Water Into Wine podcast. I'm your host,

Grace Valentine. And today I have a special episode for all you lovely ladies who are on your way to college.

Whether you're listening to this right now with your mom, strapped in with all your dorm stuff,

and you're getting almost tense and annoyed at anything she does,

mainly because you're just taking out all your frustration and fear for college on her, been there.

Or whether you're listening to this even before you go to college while you're laying out trying to get one more good tan before you go to college. I remember the feeling of going to college. I'm feeling both excited because I was able to finally leave my small suburban town in South Louisiana. And I was like, see you later, losers. By to the next boyfriend who cheated on me on spring break. Couldn't wait to be away from that.

And I remember being so excited.

But the same time, the minute I stepped on campus, all these nerves and fears almost just came over me.

And nothing I could do would stop that.

Nothing I could do would make me feel better.

And I just remember kind of having a lot of fear in this season.

And so I'm saying this for all you young woman out there who are a little nervous. It is so

normal to be nervous. And if anything, if you're not nervous, it probably means you aren't as much

excited about it. I think we think that excitement and nerves are things that can't coexist. But the truth is a lot of times when you're really excited and care for something, that is when you're nervous. So remember your nerves aren't a sign that you're weak or that you are not going to thrive. They're just a sign that you care a lot about this experience. And I remember searching especially in this season for friendships that were going to be my bridesmaid friendships because I had some people from high school like I kept up with but I really never felt like a fit in. I always say in high school I was the edge seat lunch girl. You know, I was in the certain groups and I had maybe one person next to me, but I never really felt like I belonged. I was always trying to be included in the conversation and never felt like people actually wanted me in the conversation. And so if that was you, if that's you and you feel like you're ready for this new situation, new season, I totally understand that feeling. And here's just some things that I wish I knew in college. The first thing is, and I said this in my reel, that no one plans to be the druggist girl at the party, but sometimes that ends up being you when you don't plan for anything else. And so a little bit about my story is my freshman year I got MIP, y'all. It was so embarrassing. And granted, I was the good Christian girl and I was also from South Louisiana where people were like, ah, they're drinking, we don't really care. And I went to college wanting that experience. I wanted to feel cool and feel freedom.

And there's nothing freeing about waking up with a hangover, blacking out with a ticket in your dorm room bed.

And that's exactly what I did.

I remember not knowing what I did, having a ticket, kind of remembering a faint conversation

with my RA being like, I'm not drunk.

And I was very intoxicated.

And I had to end up doing all these community service hours, Baylor where I went, which is about to school. They make it really hard. I had to go to AA classes, y'all. And then I'm meeting a friend, my friend Haley's husband now, Ethan, hope he's listening to this. Thanks, Ethan. Love to AA with you. Anyways, all I have to say is it was a time where I felt like I failed myself. And the truth is in some ways,

for the record, you're going to make mistakes in college and you have to realize some of your

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