During your senior year of high school, you hear all the new college freshman blabbing on and on about how much different college is, and how much harder it is, and then you graduate and become a college freshman. And you realize, they were right. But, since you were so vocal just a few months earlier about how these people needed to hush, you can’t actually say anything. (Which sucks, let me tell you.)
However, here I am, finally speaking out about how much harder college actually is. Of course, I am not demeaning high school seniors, because senior year was hard. The number of times I cried during precalc was a bit ridiculous honestly. Now, I’m too dead inside to cry during class.
This, though, is a list of just thirteen lessons I learned during my first year of college.
1. Pay attention in class!
You’re paying for that class. The professor doesn’t care if you don’t pass. (I’m sure they’d prefer it, but it’s not like in high school where teacher hound you about homework and projects until the day they’re due.) Paying attention in class is your most important task in college. Your future and GPA are at stake if you don’t. Which leads me to:
2. Take notes!
Taking notes is a necessary evil. If the professor moves too fast, gather your courage, and ask them to slow it down. Or, better yet, check and see if lectures slides get posted online. Then, you have the choice of printing them out, which costs money, or writing them by hand, which better ensures that you at least know the general information that you need. Then, take these neat as hell notes and STUDY! If you take just an hour a day and look over your notes, when the test dates that you forgot to write down sneak up on you, you won’t be completely screwed over.
3. Try to space classes out!
It’s not always possible, but if you can, try to schedule time between your classes. This will help when you need to eat, or study before a test in your next class, or pass out in the library for just a 15-minute nap. If you can’t space out your classes, at least make sure to have a silent snack (do not crunch your Doritos, it’s disgusting) and something to drink. It is definitely not recommended to sleep in class, because you will always miss the most interesting parts of the whole semester while you're drooling on your binder.
4. Wash your face!
Every morning and every night, you need to wash your face. Especially if you didn’t shower the night before and only have ten minutes before you need to be out the door. Acne is annoying, but taking five minutes out of your morning to wash your face can help. Of course, you will slip and start going to sleep without bothering. But then, you get a few small zits and suddenly are hit with the insatiable urge to rip your face off. So, you go back to your rigorous routine. Then a few weeks later you spend the night somewhere without your face wash and spiral again. That’s fine. But at least try, because it will pay off.
5. Don't put off doing laundry!
Try to do laundry once a week. If you don’t, it is inevitable that every article of clothing you need for THE perfect outfit to impress your suitors will be in your hamper, at varying levels, and you will not have time to wash them. So, your only option will be sweatpants and a T-shirt and avoiding eye-contact with everyone at all costs. Another point to this is, put your clothes away when you finally do wash them. Otherwise, you will dig clean clothes out of your hamper and toss dirty clothes in a pile under your bed, swearing to yourself that today is the day you put your dirty clothes in a hamper. But that is a lie. Fold your clothes in the laundry room, put them neatly in your hamper, so when you get back to your room you can put everything nice and neat in its place and Dirty Clothes Box™ can go back to being just a regular box.
6. Don't let new friends distract you!
Making new friends is a great feeling. For some, it’s absolutely miraculous. The urge to hang out with these new friends can sometimes come before the urge to do work. (Who am I kidding, “sometimes” isn’t even close.) You have to be strong, however, and make sure work is done before going out and finding wherever free food is on campus with your new buddies. Free food tastes better than paid for food, but it tastes ten times better when you can enjoy it stress-free.
7. Don't bring every piece of clothing you own!
In some dorms, you share closet space, in others, you don’t. Regardless, dorm closets are not that big. Definitely not big enough for all the clothes you have. For one, winter clothes can stay home until you go home for fall break. Bring summer clothes home, and bring your thick leggings and sweater dresses back with you. When spring break hits, you can do the opposite. Not to mention, you will definitely end up with some new clothes. Whether you scour the clearance racks, share with your roommate, or end up with fifty school t-shirts, new clothes will find a way into your life. Make sure there’s room.
8. Learn to love Ramen Noodles!
Let me set the scene: one day, you wake up and decide to splurge and buy breakfast, lunch, AND dinner with your meal plan. However, Friday rolls around and you have no meals left. That’s when you learn: Ramen is your friend. With so many flavors, you’re bound to find one that suits you. And after a while, they really are delicious. Mainly, they’re quick to cook and cheap to buy, and everyone knows the average college student has neither time nor money.
9. SLEEP!
Sleep is so important. If you don’t get good amounts of sleep, you get dizzy spells, chest pains, headaches, and sometimes hallucinations. Not enough sleep generally results in passing out in the library for half an hour while trying to work on a presentation due that day. Which is… not fun. Sleep at every moment possible, really.
10. Don't stay up all night work on homework for a nine a.m. class!
Staying up til three in the morning doing homework due that day is a bad idea. While this is related to the previous point, it has a different result: failing. Obviously, working at three in the morning does not help your work with readability. Another factor: you will oversleep and miss your early classes. All the alarms in the world will not help you if you stay up every night to work on homework, because you will be exhausted, constantly. Try to schedule time after your classes that day to work on homework. This will help you keep up with work, and get the amount of sleep you need.
11. Invest in a good pair of shoes!
If you have a full day of class, walking around in crappy shoes results in so much pain you will want to drop out of school immediately, just for that. While sneakers aren’t the cutest thing, it’s the easiest way to avoid foot pain. Obviously, if you want to want to dress really cute and sneakers just don’t fit into your ensemble, you’ll be fine. But if you wear flats every day, you will probably get blisters. Boots can result in the same thing. Of course, I’m all for suffering for the aesthetic, but at some point, it gets to be too much. Sneakers are the way to go.
12. Fashion isn't everything!
No doubt, you will want to dress cute every day, put on some eyeliner, and go about your day knowing that you’re killing it. But some days… that’s way too much to attempt. Just dragging yourself out of bed will be a struggle. Putting on makeup? I don’t think so. But if you want to put in the effort, you don’t have to do it all day. If you have an early class and so you just can’t be bothered, go back to your room after and slap on some foundation and mascara, and whatever else you deem necessary, and no one will be the wiser! Of course, most of the people in lectures are in pajamas anyways, so the bar isn’t very high.
13. College is the opportunity of a lifetime!
College isn’t the be-all-end-all of a good life, but it is an opportunity, one that you should take advantage of if you have the chance. Your GPA is by no means a measure of worth, but maintaining it is important. Failing a class will impact it badly, which could but your education in jeopardy. Don’t waste this opportunity – a lot of people would kill to be in your position. Try your hardest and it will pay off in the end.
