As I sit here and write this article I am thinking about how excited I am to be graduating from college in four and a half short months. I can't believe how quickly the four years of college have gone, well four and a half but who is counting? Oh wait... I am counting the years and the money. Oh well! I know plenty of people told me that college would fly by and that it would be the best four years of my life. Man were those people right. I got to make great friends, learned a lot along the way, and became a better person. After I am done thinking about this I think back to my freshman year and think of things that I wish I would have known going into college.
When I started I was dead set on becoming a Civil Engineer and was attending the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I was excited to begin this new adventure in my life, as I know many of the incoming college freshman are as well. I also know I was nervous about what the future would hold and how I would do in the new environment. Well lets just say my first semester was not the greatest. I ended up not continuing with Civil Engineering and decided I wanted to teach Technology and Engineering Education. Well UNCC did not offer that major so I decided to move back home to Millersville University. If I would do college all over again I would do a couple of things differently to help with a little more success.
I would not have been so set on a major going into college. I wish that I would have gone undecided and explored some of my interests to find what I wanted to do. You are setting yourself up for the rest of your life when you start college. Why be so set on something that might change? I tell many people now that are going into college to not be afraid to go undecided and figure out what you really like. Take some classes in a little bit of everything to find your thing. No one should think of you any less because you are not decided on what you want to do. It is a big decision you are making and it is scary.
Get involved on campus and find things to do. You are going to have more free time on your hands then you realize and you will need to fill that void. For me I was playing club soccer and then ended up playing college soccer for Millersville. Those were the two main things that I was involved in. I wish from the beginning I would have found other clubs or interests of mine to get involved with. I limited myself and it took me sometime to find friends. But when I got involved with activities around campus, it was amazing how quickly I met people and started to hang out with them. It will be a tough transition; you are going to be around people who are not the same as you and you have not grown up with. Find things that you like to do and it will make the transition that much easier.
Most people like myself going into college do not know how to study. Learn how to study! It is plain and simple — find the way that works best for you and go with that. Studying is different for everyone. For me it was writing all the notes I could and then paying attention in class. Once class was over I would go back and read over my notes and make sure that everything made sense for me. That may not work for someone else, but it is what I found worked best for me. If you can learn to study early, college will be that much easier for you.
Along with studying, talk to your professors. Go to their office hours or set up an appointment. They love having students come into their office and talk to them about their class. I know it was something that I did not do at first and wish I would have. I now go and talk to most of my professors right after class about school work or just life. Having an open line of communication is the best thing that you can do. You will be surprised how many professors have bumped up my grade because I went and talked to them at some point during the semester. They also were able to answer a lot of questions for me, which I could have never answered on my own. They also can give great advice about college. Believe it or not they have been through college, and they know what goes on.
Oh, and there are some other people that are good at helping with school. They lived in your house with you for the first 18 years of life. They were always there and never seemed to leave you alone. Yeah, right those people, your parents. Ah... how soon we can forget about them. The life experiences that they have been through can be invaluable. They may not always agree with the decision that you are making but they will come around soon enough. I know because I made some decisions that were some head shakers. The biggest thing though is to talk to them, have them help you with school. They may not completely understand what is going on with the work that you are doing, but they can provide insight that you may have never thought about. They will always be there for you and will do what ever it takes to help make you happy. I know mine did and I cannot thank them enough for it.
So with all that being said, enjoy college — it will be a blast and one of the best experiences ever. It will fly by; you will blink and your four years will be over. It is incredible: the friends you will meet and the things that you will learn. Most of all, have fun!
