Navigating the college environment is a serious feat and most students do not get the credit that they deserve. Popular discourse portrays college students as reckless and emotionally immature. It is unclear whom exactly is to blame for this stereotype. It probably has something to do with the popularity of video series like “I’m Shmacked,” a YouTube channel documenting hedonistic ragers at the nation’s biggest party schools. It is an irrefutable fact that college students are under an immense amount of pressure. Straight out of high school, we attempt to take on new levels of personal, fiscal and social responsibility.

The results of this transition are varied. Some people attempt to take on too much, going after every opportunity and subsequently curling up into a ball of shame and tears, unable to do the things that truly inspire them. Some people are not ambitious enough and to deal with the shame of not measuring up, they choose to use drugs or isolate themselves entirely.

I do not think that there is any perfect or ideal way to traverse the college experience, as some before me have attempted to argue. Although most campuses are similar in their goals and basic components — an environment designed for higher education, rumors — each person experiences college differently. Although there are most certainly steps one can take to discover what they enjoy, there is no formula for being happy and perfectly satisfied at school (and if there was, it probably wouldn’t be as simple as Student + Greek Life = Satisfied). You must actively shape your experience in college — like any other experience, it’s a product of your environment and your reaction to that environment. Unsurprisingly, doing this and doing this well can be really difficult and it’s not by any means a “guarantee” of happiness.

However, I’ve seen one common element in a successful college experience; self-confidence. Self-confidence is one of the most important qualities to embrace as a college student (and as a person navigating through life). It is also one of the most difficult qualities to embrace as a college student.

Self-confidence is an outward acknowledgement that you are worthy. That sounds grandiose — let me explain: “Worthy” can mean many things. You can be worthy of love, worthy of happiness, worthy of opportunity — and you are. Self-confidence is showing that you believe you are entitled to go after the things you want.

In the college environment, where one of your biggest challenges is just figuring out what you want, self-confidence is vital. I have seen people deep in the throes of self-hatred, telling themselves they can’t do anything and even if they tried they’d suck at it. These individuals claim that they aren’t cool, friendly, nice or worth being friends with. They constantly analyze contextual clues to justify their deeply held belief that they’re an unworthy pile of shit.

College can be murderous to your psyche. It’s stressful and busy and it may not even leave you time to think introspectively because you’re too busy ignoring your feelings and watching television. But if there is something I’ve garnered from this ride, it’s that without self-confidence, you may end up in that fetal position forever, clutching your Bachelor’s like a life jacket. College is just a small bubble of influence within an impossibly larger context. So take away this: love yourself. It’s an incredibly important lesson that will get you far, far away from that damn bubble.