With half of the stores at the mall boasting the best savings on dorm room decorations, and the back to school craze already in full swing, it has occurred to me that August is coming on as quickly as it ever does. I took a moment today to remember how I was feeling this same time last year––I was excited, knowing that high school was but a distant memory. At the same time, however, there was also a pang of nervousness for my first semester at college to begin. So I thought it was only appropriate that today, I share with you five important things that I learned my first year of college. For any incoming freshmen, perhaps these tips will ease some of your concerns, or educate you in highly important matters. For others, it might bring back fond memories of those first few months away from home. So, without any delay, let’s begin!
1. Knowing Where You're Going
I’ve never hid the fact that I am absolutely dreadful with directions. When I still worked at the pool, people came up to me all the time asking how to get to different hot spots across town. I would stand there, babbling like an idiot, making absolutely no sense to anyone but myself. As such, it should come as no surprise that one of my concerns about starting at college was that I was going to become horribly lost on campus. Now, I’m lucky because my university isn’t huge, but some of my friends who travelled further away came back open-mouthed at how their campus took up half of a city. My advice to anyone who is worried about stumbling past buildings blindly is to take time the day before your classes start and try to map out where you’re supposed to go. It might sound irksome, especially because a lot of people want to enjoy that last day of freedom before being sucked into the semester, but I found it extremely helpful, and I went through my first day knowing exactly where I was going.
2. Meeting People
High school is a bubble. You are shut up inside of a single building eight hours a day, five days a week, for many weeks, for four years. You tend to be in classes with a lot of the same people, and the cafeteria and parking lot are great place to meet those who you’ll be spending so much time with. College is a whole different ball game. Since hardly anyone is on the exact same schedule, people arrive on campus at different times, eat lunch whenever they feel like it wherever they feel like it, and you hardly find yourself in more than one class with the same individual. When I got to college, my biggest fear was meeting people. I had a close group of friends in high school, and since very few of them came to the same college as me, I was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to find people I would be as comfortable around. The important thing to remember is that everyone is in the same boat as you. Every other incoming freshman is away from home for the first time as well, and they don’t know what to expect any more than you do. In fact, I found that breaking the ice and laughing about all of the silly things we were worrying about was a great way to make friends. And take comfort in the fact that once you start taking classes specifically for your major, you’ll be around a lot of the same people every day, and unlike high school, they will all be people who are aiming at the same goal that you are.
3. The Freshmen Fifteen Is Real
They warned me about it. I brushed them off. Then they really warned me about it, and I laughed at them. But today, I am here to tell you the truth. The freshmen fifteen is very real, and unless you have super-hero-level self-control, you’ll probably experience it. It makes sense, if you think about it. When you live at home, you eat what your parents make you, or at least what they buy for you at the grocery store. High schools have to comply with the county nutrition standards, so even if what they are serving you doesn’t taste the best, it’s at least going to prevent you from blowing up like a balloon. But in college, you get away from all of that. They have restaurants, pizza joints, and everyone’s dorm room is stocked with microwaveable popcorn and ramen noodles, which are hardly the epitome of health. For young people who have spent their whole lives eating what other people are in control of, college is amazing. Until you step on the scale and see that you’ve shot up fifteen pounds since you last weighed yourself. Usually, the starry-eyed feelings will go away, and by your second semester, you’ll start making healthier choices again. But if you’re a new college student, and your jeans suddenly feel awfully tight, the infamous freshmen fifteen is probably the culprit.
4. In Defense of Commuters
When I told everyone that I was planning to commute to college, I got mixed responses. As someone who didn’t drive a lot before college began, I was of course concerned about the route, but I was prepared for it. I only live about twenty-five minutes away from campus, and since the idea of living at home and having free laundry, a quiet place to study, and the freedom to choose what I wanted to eat that wasn’t Domino’s, Taco Bell, or Pizza Hut sounded appealing, I decided to go for it. I found that commuting was not at all the nightmare I was expecting it to be. I found the drive to be peaceful and calming (when the back roads weren’t icy), and I think that driving all that way to get to class made me a lot more willing to go to all of my classes. I know plenty of people who like to go back and take naps or lunch breaks in their dorm rooms between classes, and while that sounded luxurious to someone whose own bed was miles away, I was glad that I was not tempted to do so. Because those same people tended to either sleep through or skip class, which wasn’t a problem for me since I had nothing to do but wait for each class to begin. So while commuters may get some flack that they don’t live on campus, there are actually quite a few benefits, which I, for one, was happy to discover early on. Now don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with dorming and getting that wonderful taste of freedom, but it just wasn't the choice for me.
5. College Is What You Make Of It
This tip actually ties in with my last point a little bit. A lot of people tried to tell me that if I commuted, I was going to miss out on the college experience. But I’m happy to report that I commuted both semesters this past year, and I don’t feel that my experiences were lessened in quality whatsoever. College is what you make of it. If you choose to sit at home all the time, whether you live in your house or a dorm, then of course you’re going to feel like you’re missing out. I did not realize how many events colleges put on every week until I actually got there and saw it with my own eyes. Paint ‘n sits, basketball/football games, dances, movie nights, karaoke, you name it. In fact, just as an aside, I would suggest you don’t bring too many t-shirts with you when you move in, because if your college is anything like mine, you will get so many t-shirts in the first week alone you won’t know what to do with them. Take this opportunity to try new things, meet new kinds of people and join a team or club just for the sake of stepping outside of your comfort zone. College is the time to figure out who you are and who you want to be, so you might as well enjoy it.
And there you have it – five things I learned in my first year of college. So take a deep breath, slap a smile on your face and put yourself out there. These are going to be the best years of your life.
