Not all things you learn in college will be taught to you by professors. Let me rephrase that: most things you learn in college you will have to discover for yourself. If you're lucky, you might get a really good professor and take a few classes that you really do like. That's nothing compared to the things that you will learn outside of class. I am a freshman wrapping up my first year away at a university. Since moving away from home and into a dorm room, I've learned more in these few months than I have in my whole life.

To start, let's look at the actual educational aspect of college. Aside from the fact that you're professors are not going to teach you half of the information, most will expect you to be teaching yourself outside of class. Yes, there will be a 15 page paper on a topic you didn't go over in class. I hope you can find someone really good at Chem to help you with your lab reports. And no, your professor will not care if you fail.

There is one thing that I've found to make the stressful college workload extremely easier. I don't mean to sound trite but go to office hours. I cannot stress this enough. It is so important. First of all, you are paying for it. Your tuition goes to your professors who are otherwise just sitting around in their office. They aren't mean. They might be scary. I promise, they want to help you. They love nothing more than talking about the subject that they have a higher degree in. They have devoted their lives to this field and teaching it to you. Even if you walk in and ask for help with a question on your homework, they will probably give you a hand. They don't want you to fail, but you're going to have to put in the work.

So that covers the biggest things that I learned about taking classes at college, but there is a whole other aspect moving away to college that I haven't talked about yet: the part where you don't live at home anymore and instead live in a huge building with other teenagers who just moved away too.

At first, you think it's awesome. No parents. No rules (aside from no hotplates or candles). Then you quickly learn that you hate the food at the dining hall so you're going to have to get creative with what kind of food you can make in a microwave. I highly suggest grabbing some mug cake mix before you move in next year. Nothing beats a fresh cake. Also, you're going to have to deal with communal living. Some things to recommend: don't be that person who's loud every single night, do remember to do your laundry, don't leave a mess in the bathroom (everyone will know it's you, I promise), and do remember to eat a vegetable every once in a while.

Another thing that you will not be told about is how to deal with the person who is really loud when you are trying to sleep. First of all, they are going to hate you no matter what you say to them. You can be the nicest person in the world and they will still think that you are too stuck up. The best thing to do is knock on their door and tell them to keep it down.

Alternatively, you could text your RA to do the same for you, but heads up, the loud person will probably assume it was you anyway. Then there is my personal favorite and the most obnoxious way to get people to shut up: announce it in your floor group chat. It will get on their nerves, but it will make them shut up really fast. Just be aware that they will probably hate you and be embarrassed for a little while. It all depends on how much you care what they thing of you.

And this brings me to my next point. Not everyone is going to love you and that's okay. You don't have to win everyone's approval. You just have to be civil enough around the people you live with that you don't look like a complete jerk. You probably aren't going to be best friends with your neighbor. That's okay. You can hate them, even. It won't matter. What matters in college is you. You are here to focus on yourself. Get out there and study hard. This kind of experience only happens once. College is your time to learn how to grow up.