The first thing that everyone should know before entering college is that it’s ok to mess up, temporarily disappoint your parents, or do anything just isn’t supposed to happen. Truthfully, a college experience is not complete until you’ve gone off track and learned from your mistakes.

We all know what happened right here in Newark a few weeks ago when the po po decided to have a day, but to be honest, no college student did anything out of the ordinary. Let's be real… it’s college. I believe that’s enough of an explanation for enjoying the warm weather and having a few Nattys on a Saturday afternoon. And if any innocent freshmen are still mentally scarred from this brand new experience, I swear it’s not going to change your life. In reality, it’s not like you robbed a bank or committed some other felony.

Here’s a piece of advice that could make things interesting, try asking your parents what their college experience was like and if all things went according to plan. Chances are, the answer will be something along the lines of “Well, I wasn’t going to tell you, but I got myself into a fair share of trouble back in the day.” And then they’ll probably enjoy briefly reminiscing their glory days and genuinely wish you could swap roles so they could relive college.

At the end of the day, these are meant to be the years of experimenting, trying new things, and making mistakes before it’s too late and you’re stuck in the real world with nothing to fall back on. Regardless of the size or location of your school, all college students have one thing in common: living away from your parents with endless amounts of freedom. So, therefore, take advantage of this freedom, and do the best you can because we’re all going yo mess up along the way.