August 10, 2016

Dear Incoming Freshman,

It's now just about the second week of August and sooner than later, you'll be moving into your new home. I know many of your emotions are very mixed like I had last year. Some students are excited to move in pretty soon and others are nervous because it's a very tough transition. With my sophomore year coming up, here are some tips to advise the upcoming freshman moving into college.

Become very involved: Once you move into college and if your not in classes, don't just stay in your room the whole entire time. It's OK to be by yourself but being active around many other of your classmates is extremely important. It's nice to meet other people because you never know maybe that person you start talking to becomes your best friend. I was in two clubs with some of my friends freshman year but I wasn't very active in either of them. I got to meet some guys on the baseball team that I was with for a short time as well.

Asking questions isn't a bad thing at all: Many might think asking a lot of questions might be a lot but I remember that first week when I went to a lot of upper classmen and asked them questions about the campus life, classes, and where to access each of the buildings at the school. They gave me a lot of good information so by the time my first semester was done, I felt like I was apart of my college home.

Time Management is Key: To be honest, this was one of my toughest things to deal with my whole entire freshman school year and that's time management. I tend to procrastinate quite a bit and that's definitely not a good thing in college but I would definitely like to change that this year. I started not to procrastinate towards the second half of the semester so I want to keep it going. There's a part in college where there's your social life but there's also the academic part of school as well. An example of a situation that you can face your first year is like you have to study for a test one night but instead your friends want you to go see a movie with them, make sure your making the right choice. I know you might want to go see that certain movie but getting your work done and studying is very important.

A tip on move in day: Saying goodbye to your parents will be tough but it'll be OK as you get very use to your campus so much that you don't want to leave. Last year, I wasn't the first one to move out on move in day. It was my brother. I'll be honest when I was with my twin brother last year, I was sobbing up quite a bit. I was never so emotional until that one day he left me for the very first time. It was hard because I was with my twin brother my whole life until now when I see him on breaks and over the summer. I came for a week visit to his school last winter and what I took out of that visit is that he was in a good place. The goal for a freshman is make sure you feel like your at the right place. As I left for my freshman year I knew it would be hard to leave my parents, but in the end I was able to start a new chapter in my life and hopefully I was able to meet new people and become successful my first year.

This year I have to say won't be as bad with moving in because I now know what the routine is like from last year. Saying good bye to my twin brother this year wasn't as bad either because he's already experienced a year at his school and loves it.

The last thing to know for adults out there is not to have the students over pack with too many clothes. What I did, was I mapped out how many weeks I would be gone and then I would just do laundry each week. Before coming to your campus it seems like you need to bring so much, but in reality its actually better not to have as many clothes.

To wrap things up, Good luck to all incoming freshman moving in. Hopefully you find yourself at a place where you can consider this place home for you in the next two or four years.