With a new school year starting, there are many eager freshmen ready to see what this new "college life" has in store for them. This article is my gift to all you freshies and I hope you take my lessons learned and apply them as soon as possible this coming semester. While you will all make your own mistakes and learn from them on your own, it still wouldn't hurt to take a little something from the advice I'm about to give you.

First things first... the "Freshman 15" is real. It happens to the best of us. But there are a few ways to try and prevent it. While the occasional midnight pizza runs with your friends are totally fine and typical of college kids, try not to do it every night. Also, don't eat too much fast food. Maybe just a little once a day. Don't go overboard and eat it every meal. Honestly, my second semester I ate an eight-count Chick-fil-A chicken nugget everyday for lunch and I actually lost weight! No fries though. And a diet lemonade. I know, bummer. But it can be done. As long as those chicken nuggets are the most fattening thing you eat all day, you should be fine. It's all about discipline though.

Next let's talk about friends. Making friends is sometimes hard to do. But instead of being confined to your dorm all the time, get out and walk around campus, talk to strangers on the sidewalks, and especially talk to everyone in your classes. Don't be shy, everyone else is just as eager as you are to make new friends. Just say hello. Ask them how their day is going. Ask them about homework. Just talk to people! Trust me. Just do it. You could meet your best friend in college just by stepping out of your comfort zone and saying hello. Also, do your best to get involved on campus in as many ways as you can. This is a great way to meet new people and give yourself something to do outside of academics!

Now let's talk about classes. If this is the only thing you take away from this article, I will be okay with that because this might be the most important thing I say. You're all just getting out on your own and are probably thrilled not to have someone telling you what to do all the time and making you go to school. But even though you don't have someone making you go to class, just get up and go anyway. Seriously. You might get away with skipping one or two classes, but from my own experience the things you miss in those classes is what the majority of the test is going to be on. And getting someone else's notes doesn't always work either because the tests are based mainly off of the lecture, not the notes. So just go to class! And still talking academically, my other major piece of advice for your classes is to study, study, study! And not the night before an exam. Cramming is the absolute worst way to prepare for a test. Set a time everyday to sit and and go over your notes, make sure you understand the lecture topics, and even copy your notes down again in some other format. This could take you 10 minutes or a few hours, but please make some time to study every day.

And lastly, just have fun! While college is mainly about getting an education for your future career, don't take it too seriously all the time. You might be legally an adult now and you do have more responsibilities, but you still have time left to just be young and have fun! College won't last forever and soon enough we'll all be out into the real, real world. Hang out with your friends, and experience college life! Because one day, when you are working every day in the career you worked hard to get to, you'll smile at all the great memories you made along the way too.

Hope you all have a great year!