Congratulations! You're an adult. Believe me, making it this far in life is something to be proud of. This day and age, not many young people are making it past tenth grade. You're about to learn the ins and outs of what it means to truly be responsible. To pay all of your bills on time. To balance a different kind of class schedule and making it to work everyday. It's going to be tough. It's going to be long. You thought staying up late studying for high school finals were hard? Ha, you have no idea. It's nice to have fun and I know that you will, but don't forget to take your education seriously. It comes first now. So many college freshman forget that. Take it from someone whose already been there.
Use a planner. For the love of God, write your assignments down. Put them in your phone, write them on your hand, email them to yourself, do something with your assignments. It's not lame to be organized. Using a planner has helped me so much. There aren't many college professors that you're going to find that give you a study guide or accept late work. None of my professors accept late work. Due dates are crucial in college just like they will be crucial for your career. You have to give yourself enough time to complete your assignments and if you're anything like me, you need to be reminded to do something 50 times before doing it. Not everything can be done the night before and if you do complete it that quickly, it's probably not any good.
Be interactive. For me, I joined a sorority my first semester and I fell in love with it. All of my friends are my sorority sisters and almost all of my free time, I'm out doing something for Phi Mu. If you're even slightly interested in Going Greek, I encourage you to keep an open mind and don't be afraid to let the wonderful Greek women or men on your campus get to know the real you! If you go to a smaller school like me with no on campus housing and commute to class and home everyday, you need something to do. You need to meet the people you're at school with everyday and be involved. Organizations and future employers will love to see that you were an active student volunteering their time with a variety of things. Join the Debate team. Try out for a sport. Join a community service club or a club for your major. Just have something more to talk about than what class you went to that day. Spend some time on campus in your game room or cafeteria. Someone is bound to strike up a conversation!
Stop thinking that everyone is judging you. This isn't high school. People truly find themselves when they go to college. There is so much more for you to do. You can truly be yourself. You can wear whatever you want, like whoever you want, be whatever you want, and I promise there's at least 10 other people who will be right there beside you. Most people are so busy in college, they don't have time to sit around and judge others like you may be used to in high school. We are adults. We have bills to pay and mouths to feed. This is not the time to be childish, believe me. You grow out of your childish ways very quickly.
Don't overwhelm yourself. Don't get so caught up in graduating that you take on 18 hours of class every semester. You just started school! You're just asking for anxiety attacks. You deserve to breathe. You can take a normal amount of hours and still get your stuff done in a reasonable manner, I promise. Take what you know you can handle and go from there. You deserve to rest your body and your mind. You deserve to nap and eat snacks and binge watch Netflix. You don't deserve to overwork yourself because then you're not going to be successful. It's healthy to let your brain rest and let what you've studied and learned sink in. Just take a deep breath for me.
I repeat, take your education seriously. This is no time to joke around. Failing school is not fun or impressive. You can wind up on academic probation. You risk people, teachers, and future employers thinking you're irresponsible and have no time management. That's not "cool," that just cost you a job. Skipping class three days a week is not "cool," it just left an "F" on your transcript. You can still have fun. You can still go out with your friends and crack a few cold ones. But show up for class. Take notes. If you can't make it for whatever reason, have a plan. Be an adult and handle your business. You're taking care of yourself now. There's no one here to babysit you. There's no one here to call your teacher and bitch about a bad grade you received. College is real. These professors are real.
Long story short, take advantage of the time you spend in college. Take advantage of your resources. Study hard, relax harder. Be apart of something and grow as a person. Your next employer wants an outgoing, helpful, knowledgeable person apart of their company. You're going to make great memories at all the different parties you go to. You're going to have so much fun here in adult world with all of your friends. You're going to meet so many crazy, awesome, amazing people. It's going to be tough sometimes, but the end will be here in the blink of an eye, believe me.
Then you'll be where I am, writing an article to all the college freshman as you work your way to the next milestone in your life. It's been a great ride.
Good luck!
