You need to put your mental and emotional health in your top 3 priorities

This is such a cliche piece of advice now, but it's overdone because it's important. I took all AP and dual credit classes in high school were involved in nearly every extracurricular activity my school offered and had endless awards and honors. And yet, it was a breeze. Sure, I was always busy but 99% of the time I was not stressed.

That being said, college is pretty much the complete opposite. I went from doing everything under the sun to doing school and two other activities, and those three things took more of a toll on me than everything did in all four years of high school combined. And because I cannot quit anything for the life of me, I suffered because of it.

You'll learn this one way or another, so either listen to the thousands of people telling you your mental and emotional health is important or do what I did and cause yourself more trouble than you need to.

You can't wait till the night before a test to start studying

Yeah, it worked in high school and might in college for a while, but not for long.

If you want your spaces clean, you're gonna have to suck it up and do it yourself

(*cough cough* the BATHROOM)

If you spent any amount of time with me this past semester, you undoubtedly heard at least some complaints about me and my roommate being the only ones that cleaned our bathroom. Eventually, we just decided that if we wanted our space clean, we were fine with doing it ourselves.

Point is, not everyone is going to do their part and carry their own weight. But you can complain about it or you can accept that you like things cleaner than other people do.

You need to be Facebook savvy

I truly have no idea why we all make fun of Facebook as the old person's social media, because in college it's used for everything. I'm constantly required to post on it and keep up with Facebook pages.

You've gotta eat something substantial at some point or another

You can live on ramen and microwavable meals for a while, but at some point, a boxed meal just doesn't cut it.

Usually, I would get back to my dorm around 10 or 11 at night and realize I hadn't eaten all day. One, it's bad for your body and two, it's bad for your brain. C's get degrees, but not when you're hungry!

You need to be able to get along with people who aren't like you!

I went to a pretty basic high school where (almost) everyone came from the same backgrounds. Then I got to college and there were so many different kinds of people. People I didn't have anything in common with, people who didn't look or act like me, people who thought and believed differently than me. And I loved it!

Embrace the things that make us different. You'll learn a lot, you'll find friendships in unexpected places, and as the cliche goes, "this world would be one boring place if we were all the same."

It's okay to opt out of a weekend of going out and just go home

So I'm very likely the only person who likes to go home every once in a while and spend a weekend in the no-makeup-and-no-plans-gang. But if you ever feel exhausted and like you need time away, there's no shame in going home.

Breaks are not (and never will be) productive

You will never get anything done over break. No matter how determined you are. So quit putting off writing that paper or studying for that test until break because you will inevitably end up having to cram to get it done that following Monday.

You CAN have fun without alcohol!

I know this one's hard to believe. Drinking can definitely make things more fun, but if you've decided to not drink for whatever reason, you don't have to swear off having a good time for the rest of your life. Don't lose hope. Trust me.

At some point, you've gotta put down the pencil (or close the laptop) and go do something fun

This past summer before I moved out (and honestly all throughout my senior year), my dad repeatedly told me, "You're a lot like me and while I appreciate it, you've gotta realize some things about yourself."

He told me that, like him, I'm all "work hard before you play hard…" a little too much so. He told me that his one regret about college is that he spent too much time studying and not enough time doing other non-school things. And he told me that I needed to be intentional about not making the same mistake he did.

And it wasn't until about halfway through the semester that I realized he was right, and I learned to put down my homework at some point and go eat dinner with a friend or go hang out at my sorority house or even just watch an episode of something on Netflix to not be working.