It is the summer before you move into college and you are most likely stressing about the upcoming journey you are about to begin. Any advice will help, and I'm here to give it to you. Here are 10 things to remember this year:

1. Be true to yourself

This is the time where you get the chance to be the person you want to be. You get to make your own decisions, join organizations that you find interesting, go out on a Friday night even though you swore you weren’t into partying. You might even want to recreate yourself and try new things. Go for it. You may never get another chance and you do not want to have any regrets. There might be many temptations to try to be someone you're not, but trust me, you will find a group of friends who will love you for you and will help you find your way.

2. Spend more time with your parents the summer before you move

This summer before you move into college will be tense. Your relationship with your friends, family or significant others will be strained. But if I have learned one thing, it is that most of those people will disappear from your life. The only ones that are completely constant are your parents. They too will have a hard time saying goodbye to you and the past, and because of their growing sadness, fights will begin to breakout.Try not to make them worse. Understand that they are going through a tough time and just love on them. Chances are you're going to miss them more than you think, so make memories with them prior to leaving. This might even make the goodbye, easier and less emotional. Wait, who am I kidding?! Your parents will cry like you've never seen before.

3. Do not take all your t-shirts will you

Chances are you’re going to overpack. I know I did. You are going to tell yourself that you will wear all the clothes you brought, but you won't. My biggest mistake was packing too many t-shirts. I took a whole drawer full of them and to be honest, I only wore about five. I got a ton of free ones at school, and didn’t want to wear high school shirts in college. So just don’t pack them. Save yourself the space and laundry.

4. Do not take your car

First of all, parking passes at most schools are expensive. Second of all, parking spaces will be limited. Third, if you have a car, people are always going to beg you to take them to the store. This will not only bother you, but if you say yes once, they will assume you can always do it. You will end up getting busier and it will be harder to say no, even though you need to. Just make sure you have everything you need and if you end up needing a ride, find some friends and go at the same time to stock up on food and groceries for the month.

5. Know that it is okay to miss home

You are going to arrive on campus for move-in day with this feeling of independence and pride. You most likely won’t cry when you say goodbye to your parents (I didn’t). You are going to be so excited to settle into your new life without your parents, rules or curfews. You also will probably forget to call for the first week because you will be too busy with your new friends and activities. But there will come a time when it is 3a.m.and you are stressed over a paper, project or test you have the following morning and all you want to do is call home. My suggestion to you is to do it. Call home. Even though it is early in the morning, your parents will answer. They will listen to you as you cry and say that you want to come home because college is just “too hard” and then they will tell you that this is just a phase and you will feel better tomorrow. You won’t believe them until you wake up the next morning and realize they were right. Oh, and that they have been right about most things throughout your life.

6. Also know that it is okay to not miss home

Contrary to what I said above, there will be times when your mom is going to beg you to come home because she misses her kid. But you will be having so much fun that you do not even hesitate to say no. You enjoy hanging out with your new friends. You enjoy getting to eat whatever you want in the all-you-can-eat buffet dining hall. You enjoy getting to try new things and go out on the weekends.Just know that it is okay to not want to go home, so do not feel guilty about it.

7. STUDY

In high school, you probably never had to study for a test. You could guess and get the answers right. But in college, it is a completely different story. Studying should be your top priority. School is now your life; you are devoting the next 4-8 years of your life to education. Without studying, there will be no chance of learning new things or preparing for your future. You will most likely walk into your first exam thinking you know all the information because you studied for an hour before the test. You will be wrong. The professor is going to ask you for information on items you would have never guessed would be on the exam. Read your textbook, study every night after class, and take good notes. You will only succeed in college if you have the determination to do well. I promise you, studying is the cool thing to do!

8. You are not going to like all your professors

You might have chosen your school because it is known to have some of the best professors. But to be honest, you are not going to like all of them. Some will be tougher than the others, some will not even care about you outside of their classroom, and some will even make you not want to come to class. But that should not stop you from studying for those classes. It should make you want to study more and harder. Prove them wrong. Prove to them that you are a brilliant student who is willing to work harder than anyone else to earn an A in their class, even though the professor will try to do everything in his/her power to not make that happen.

9. Go to class

You are going to have this sensation to skip class every once in a while. Do not do it. You will miss a ton of information and you will not be able to pick back up. So just go, enough said.

10. Cherish this time

These four years of college will most likely be the best years of your life. I mean where else can you eat all you want, always be with your friends, party, order pizza at 2a.m. and make your own rules? That’s right, nowhere. So enjoy it. Try things you would never expect yourself to do. Laugh, smile, cry, but have the time of your life.

Never regret the chance to be a college student, but never forget where you came from. I hope this makes your first couple weeks easier!