The 15 Lessons You Learn During Freshman Year
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The 15 Lessons You Learn During Freshman Year

The things you'll never forget.

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The 15 Lessons You Learn During Freshman Year
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After surviving your first year of college, there are a few things that will never quite leave you. The painful memories of those irritating, throbbing headaches that you developed while cramming for your psychology final, for example. Or maybe it's the smell of piping hot, freshly burnt but still drinkable coffee that you brewed up to help you get through your research paper. But mostly, it is the lessons that you have come to learn after getting a little taste of the college student life. From the best times to hit the on-campus Dunkin' Donuts to the quietest places to study, you've trained yourself to know the absolute best ways to enjoy the next three years. Here are just 15 of the many lessons that every college freshman has found tried and true, making them all the more ready to start sophomore year:

1. College is pretty much an endless tap of free stuff.

Well, it's not technically free because you supply this place with a humongous amount of cash every year, Seriously, the freebies you get during the year should just be outlined in your bill, filed under a section called "T-Shirts You Will Never Wear Again and Miscellaneous Dollar Store Prizes." But regardless, you have learned that college basically throws school-spirited gifts at you to say, "Sorry we cost you so much money! Here's a stress ball and a school pencil!"

2. It's always better to choose the better professor over the better class time. Always.

This lessons was once you learned later on in your first year. Yes, getting up at 8 a.m. is inhumane and awful (even worse, if you're a commuter and you need to leave much earlier than that). Tragically, it seems as if all of the best professor hold their classes extremely early or late in the day. And even if that professor has stellar, perfect reviews, you still don't want to inconvenience yourself by putting this outlier of a class on your schedule. However, incoming sophomores know that it pays off grade-wise to take the better professor's 8 a.m. class rather than the so-so professor's 12 p.m. class, When it comes down to it, you'll a) struggle less b) actually want to go to class and c) get a better grade than you would've gotten with someone else.

3. Sleep is honestly the greatest invention ever.

Whoever discovered that your brain can temporarily turn itself off while you relax on a horizontal object with a large cloth and cushion should be given a medal. Every former freshie knows that sleep is a valuable resource that deserves to be taken advantage of at every given opportunity.

4. Friday classes $uck.

It's like, your mind so desperately wants it to be the weekend already, but you can't because you have psychology at 11 a.m. Ugh.

5. It's better to not even watch your Snapchat stories on Thursday night.

Fact: your Snapchat is never more lit during the week than when your friends are at a massive party on a Thursday night. However, you've learned that you should only watch your stories if you're in the particular mood to watch that guy in your Biology class do a keg stand or every girl on your friends list perform a 10-second lip-sync to whatever 90's hit is playing on the dance floor.

6. No one attends Friday morning classes because see #s 3 and 4.

By now, you've probably walked into at least Friday one class where less than half of the students showed up. There is truly no greater pain than sitting in a class that probably would've been cancelled if the four people that actually showed up just stayed in. By Friday morning, everyone is essentially too tired, too lazy, and too sick from the night before to even think about 8 a.m. anthropology. Now we know, Sophs.

7 Take free food when offered. No exceptions.

It's easy to ignore the free food stands or promotions on campus while running to your next class. But, now you've learned that all of that free food is valuable and saves you a few bucks at the vending machine. So next semester, stalk up on those samples.

8. You're always going to have that one class.

During freshman year, you probably didn't anticipate having such a hard time in at least one of your classes. You probably crammed, pulled all-nighters, blamed yourself, and maybe even cried a little. Perhaps your self-esteem fell and you swore you would never challenge yourself like that ever again. From this, you learned the often-hard lesson that there's always going to be an obstacle here and there. if everything in life was always smooth-sailing and a cake walk, well it'd be quite boring. Keep in mind what you've learned in the past year; that everyone's got a mountain to climb,

9. College doesn't follow the high school cliquey vibe.

You've learned that everyone is sort of a lone wolf in college compared to how high school was structured. Of course, everyone has friends and roommates and what not. But for the most part, everyone is generally pretty self-reliant. Maybe you like that and maybe it terrifies you. Either way, it's a fact.


10. I love ___. I really want to be a ____.

Hopefully by freshman year, you've found your major! You've taken countless Gen Eds, started several paths that you had even the slightest interest in, and now you can definitively say that you want to become a doctor, a lawyer, an artist, an anything.

11. Coffee addiction is real.

It's like the nectar of the Gods that keeps you awake enough to finish that five page English paper at 1 a.m. It's what gets you up out of bed to run to your 9 a.m. class. When it comes down to it, you've found that coffee is your dark roasted, cream-swirled, fresh brewed fairy godmother during your college years.

12. You don't have to be perfect.

So what if you didn't ace that exam? What can you do about the fact that you were late to class for the first time yesterday? College is a huge responsibility and with that responsibility comes mistakes here and there. By the end of your first year, you've learned that nobody can be on time, on task, and on point 24/7.

13. High school was the biggest joke ever.

I mean, why did you really have to do those random worksheets and class activities. Sure, high school is great and has some perks over college (let's say less homework, less stress). But, by freshman year, it's pretty clear that college is high school's better, more fun sibling. And the classwork is nothing compared to your college classes.

14. Your freshman year friends are there for life.

It's true, your most genuine, lasting friends are going to come from your freshman year. By now, you've met people in your major, bonded with other students in those irrelevant general classes, and had at least one roommate experience. You've learned to hold on to these friends. They knew you when you were a scared little freshie, and they'll grow with you, making your squad a bunch of smart, badass butterflies.

15. All of those myths/rumors/urban legends you heard about college were actually not true (for the most part).

No, the freshman 15 is not necessarily true. No, you will not be partying every single night. And yes, you need to actually show up to class to pass. By the beginning of of Sophomore status, you've come to know that anything you've ever heard about freshman year before actually attending college is a load of gar-bage. The only way you can understand college life is going out and living it, and that is a fact.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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