As I enter my senior year, I found myself reflecting on some things I wish someone had advised me to do at the start of my college career or things I wish that I had done. I figured I would go ahead and pass on this list to any incoming first years. Here’s 20 things every freshman should know at the start of their first semester of college.

1. Don't wear a lanyard with your keys on it around your neck. People will know you’re a freshman. So, pro tip: buy a carabiner.
2. Talk to your roommate about the expectations that you both have for each other for the school year and actually fill out the roommate agreement.
3. Make time for yourself to explore or read or do something you love. You need time alone to recoup!
4. Introduce yourself to people you don't know. Take initiative to say hello and strike up conversations. You'll make some of the best friends you’ll ever have within those primary few weeks.
5. When you miss home, text your mom and tell her you love her and send her a description of your favorite part of your day. Keep her in the loop because she sure will have missed you too.
6. Spend time at a common gathering place like a fountain, hollow, oval or whatever it is your school has. Take your reading for class the next day there and know that it can be a good thing to be around people and not have to necessarily interact with them conversationally.
7. Make good use of the movie section in your university library. There's some hidden gems that line those shelves - popcorn and movies are huge attractions for “friend-making.”
8. Expect the phrases “sleep for a week” and “sleep is for the weak” to both become equally true over the course of the semester.
9. You are definitely going to look and/or feel stupid at one point or another. Embrace it and move on! It's not gonna be the last time it will happen.
10. Take notes on at least a somewhat regular basis… Keep them logged in the same place, so as not to lose any important section of your lectures. Lucky for you, if those notes are in a collective spot, they may (*gasp) help you study when the exam comes.
11. Always actually go to the review days before a big exam.
12. Make it a game to get as many freebies as possible at the student organization fair.
13. Let your professors know you care. The more you show up to class, the more likely they will be to help you when you fail a test, or when you need extra practice for a hard chapter that has confused you.
14. Wear your goggles for lab. The whole time. You never know what could go wrong...
15. Plan a special day to spend with your friends, make dinner together or go to a local park. Do something that everyone can participate in and make memories together!
16. Play card games, board games, outdoor games - have good solid fun free time.
17. If your boyfriend or girlfriend are not in college or not on the same campus as you, write letters and share about some of the exciting things happening around campus. Everyone loves the feeling of snail mail in their university mailbox.
18. Ask your parents to send you a surprise care package, you’ll really appreciate it at an unknown time in the semester.
19. Tell your close friends how they can care for you best when you're overwhelmed. That time will come, perhaps often, and it will be nice to know you're understood and that someone knows how to specifically care for you.
20. Enjoy every moment. Take good #vsco-edited, Instagram-worthy pictures, but don't miss all the moments in life that will be happening right in front of you. Soon they will pass by, and you’ll be sitting in my shoes, as a senior wondering where the time went.