37 College Tips

I wrote this post for a wonderful rising college freshman I am lucky enough to call my (adopted) cousin. This is an extremely random list of tips for you, Keane, that I hope helps, or just makes you laugh.  Basically, what I am trying to say is, college is amazing. College is exciting, frightening, challenging, and one of the greatest adventures of your life. I hope you love every minute of it.

1.   Everyone is just as scared and nervous as you are.

2.   You are not too cool to hang out with your parents just because you are in college. Don’t blow them off when they come to visit you. Everyone will be sad, you’ll cry when they leave, later regret your behavior, and be reminded of the incident for years. Trust me.

3.   When your parents are happy with you and you have maintained a good relationship with them (and GPA), they’ll be more inclined to send you money.

4.   If possible, avoid taking 8am classes like the plague.

5.   Dry shampoo will save your life.

6.   On the first day of class everyone will already know that you are a freshmen. No use disguising it. All though, to minimize confusion try to find where all of your classes meet the day before school starts. 

7.   Never ever pull an all-nighter by not eating and only consuming copious amounts of energy drinks. You will get sick. (I haven’t had a Monster energy drink since fall ’09. It was a bad day.)

8.   Don’t try to write a big paper the night before it’s due. While it is possible, it will be painful and you will cry.

9.   When you’re a senior, make friends with the freshmen. They can be highly entertaining and will think you’re hilarious.

10. Every guy you meet your freshmen year will be an idiot. I promise. (If you don’t believe me I want you to first, call Daddy Skip. He will confirm this. Second, just watch the first 20 minutes of “When Harry Met Sally”.)

11.  Do not under any circumstances trust a senior boy. They are the worst kind of idiot.

12.  Exercising your newfound independence does not include getting a tattoo or body piercing.

13.  Don’t be the girl who:

a.    ..Moves all of her high school yearbooks and photo albums into the dorm with her.

b.   ..Goes to sporting events with a letter painted on their chest. Nobody is ever impressed.

c.    ..Wears a bikini on quad. I mean, your professors can see you.

d.   ..Wears heels to class. Like, seriously.

14.   Read the college newspaper just because it’s adorable and will make you feel mature. Plus Sudoku is fun.

15. Take a class that blows your mind and makes you question everything.

16.   Question your purpose in life.

17.   Go sit with the girl who is sitting by herself in the cafeteria.

18.   If your school has any dorky traditions, participate!

19.  Get involved with SGA.

20.  Make friends outside of your depart. Then you’ll have people to invite to your events!

21.You won’t miss anything if you skip a party. That saying “you can always re-take a class but you can never re-take a party” is ridiculous.

22.  Enjoy the stage of life you are in. Don’t waste time wishing you were older.

23.  On that note, possessing a fake ID is a felony.

24.  If possible, study abroad!! It will change your life.

25. “Ice cream cereal” is my most favorite cafeteria invention. Soft serve vanilla ice cream and cinnamon toast crunch cereal. Genius.

26. Turn your phone off in the library and get off Facebook. If having a reputation for uploading pictures after an event could help your GPA, I would have been valedictorian.

27.  Actually go to the library.

28.  Go to sleep. Just because you’re parents aren’t there to make you go to bed at reasonable hour does not mean you should stay up until 4am watching Netflix regularly.

29. Call your parents.

30.The first two weeks of the fall semester literally every campus organization and local church will be giving away free stuff. Embrace the free food.

31.  Lots of other girls will do it, but please do not start going to a tanning bed. It will be really tempting when dreary January rolls around, but you will just look like an orange dummy. Plus the whole skin cancer thing.

32.  Sometimes the memories you make on random 2am fast food runs will be better than any party.

33.  Have a dance party outside a fast food restaurant while blasting Taylor Swift on the radio.

34.  Life is not like “Friends”. It just isn’t. (My Junior year I went through a major Friends watching phase and decided it would be fun to work at a cool coffee shop like Rachel. It wasn’t. You actually have to make the drinks. I only worked two shifts.)

35. Everything always works out. When things don’t go as planned don’t freak out. Something even better may happen.

36.  Every year, and possibly semester, your friend group might change. And that’s ok! For me, every year of college was so diverse. I learned to embrace change. I loved how each semester was extremely different than the last one and things just kept getting better!

37. Do it for the story.

Keane,

I am so thankful we are family. After the wonderful week y'all cruised with me I realized I have categorized you in a special place in my heart. To me, you will always be Baby Keane and I will never be able to stop wanting to protect you. I can't help it. I am a big sister. You are a rockstar and I am so excited to see what amazing things you do next. 

Love you to the moon!

   FRESHMEN

      SOPHOMORE

       JUNIOR

SENIOR