Yes, you graduated high school! Finally you aren't stuck in one building all day not breathing fresh air for hours anymore! You are off to the real world and for some of you that might just mean college! If you have college in your future, here are some tips and tricks to help you out…
•Just when you thought you were the big fish in the pond you are now the smallest little minnow fish on a huge college campus. If you're like me, I went from graduating from a small school with 82 in my class to stepping onto a college campus 35 minutes away from my house with 20,000 new strangers. I was lost. Completely lost. I didn't know where my next class was and I still don't know how I manage to walk clear across campus in the 5 minute time slot I have between classes.
•What has helped me most is to get involved!! That is a huge one to me! Show up to events, no matter how busy you are. Show up, have fun, meet new people. It can never hurt. Yeah, you can go to the free ice cream event even if you will be a few short minutes late to class. Yeah, you can go to the Zumba event even if you are a horrible dancer. Go and make memories! Yeah, you can do what you want. Join clubs!! Meet friends!! These are the people you will hopefully be close with the rest of college or even the rest of your lives! Freshman year is hard but getting involved will help you through the adjustment period!
•Talk to people in your classes!
This may sound like the typical advice everyone in the world tells you but I promise it helps! For example, the night before my third day of college, my math professor emailed and said have 2 other partners to work together with tomorrow morning. I of course, read the email and ignored it because I didn't know anyone in class and that was unlike me. So I walk into class that day, take a seat in the front row and read the board. Once again, it said have 2 other partners. I turned around to look at rest of the lecture hall I was in and I saw 2 girls sitting alone and I asked if I could sit with them. I didn't know that day but those girls turned into some of my best friends, one of the best decisions of my college career so far!!! One of the girls was from a town about 20 minutes from my house and we had a lot in common and the other girl was from Thailand, still learning the English language. We also became close with the group behind us, they were so fun to be around and we always had help when we needed it!
•Don't spend too much money (or at least be careful with how much you are spending)
I'm a commuter so I don't have a meal plan on campus, I just have to put money on my student ID to eat on campus. I usually only have to eat lunch there when I have breaks in between. That money can add up quickly. I try to find the best deal I can get with any of the restaurants my college offers. Including a salad bar, a burrito place, Magic Wok and Subway. My college also offers Starbucks and a different smaller coffee shop. I'm a sucker for Starbucks' Strawberry Acai Refresher with Lemonade (It's kind of hard for me to pass up), because I'm not much of a coffee person.
What I've learned this year is, that drink can just be a treat it doesn't have to be an everyday thing. This will help on keeping yourself a little bit healthier and not spending $5 on a drink everyday or every time you are craving it.
Those are just some of my tips and tricks for your first year on campus!! Wishing you all a happy, safe and fun Freshman Year and hope these tips helped!!! :)
