Remember starting high school? You thought you knew everything; I know I did. Then you started sophomore year and realized how stupid a freshman you actually were. Just a heads up, that’s gonna happen again, and soon. You’re back at the bottom of the totem pole; but at the same time, you’re a lot smarter than the 2011 version of you was.

There are a lot of lessons to learn and that’s perfectly OK. There are plenty of people to teach them to you.

I know it sounds cheesy, but every person you meet at USC has something to teach you. Sure, your professors are going to lecture on history, and Khan Academy will be there when you don’t understand organic chemistry, but that’s not what I’m talking about.

This isn’t going to be like when you started high school, where everyone was probably from the same school district as you. At USC, you’re going to meet some of the most incredible people from all over who have experienced things you never could have imagined. I’m going to be cheesy again for a moment, but literally everyone you’ll talk to knows something that you don’t.

USC gives you the opportunity to learn lessons you never could have anywhere else. Sometimes you’ll only learn something small, like what days Café 84 has Nutella crepes, or that Galantis has more songs than just that the one that goes "wanna run awaaaaaay." Other times, you’ll learn how people tick, what motivates them, and new ways to have fun with people from literally all over the world.

Over the summer, I interned at PricewaterhouseCoopers, or PwC for short (an accounting firm for the non-business majors). While I was there, I had a bucket load of company-appointed “mentors”. I had my supervisor, my peer coach, an associate mentor, a manager mentor, and a partner member.

In just the same way, USC is going to have people whose entire job is to help you accommodate to college life and succeed as a student. The main ones are going to be your RA, your professors, and your academic advisor. Get to know them, because they’re really going to come in handy.

At the same time, you’ll find yourself having some unofficial mentors, and you’d be stupid to not try and learn from them too. Sure, my official mentors taught me a lot at PwC, but I learned even more playing dodgeball and riding Duffy boats with the older interns. Here are some people you might want to listen to:

• Your roommates are definitely going to teach things, even if you don’t have seven of them like I did my freshman year.
• So will the people you run into in the Tutor Center, on Menlo, and at the Jack-in-the-Box.
• Make sure to meet people outside of your major, or you’re going to cut yourself off from a lot of cool experiences you wouldn’t get otherwise.
• Going Greek can also give you to opportunity to meet a literal house full of older people to learn from, especially if you haven’t learned how to play rage cage yet.
• Your professors will also teach you many things that aren’t exactly a part of the curriculum. For example, I once walked into class to find out my teacher wrote this bit of advice on our chalkboard. “When life gives you lemons, pose with them in a selfie. Why not? You look good next to yellow.”

• That hot girl or guy in class you’ve been working up the courage to talk to? Even he/she will teach you something. Just hopefully it’s not how to deal with rejection.
• And if you start dating that guy/girl? Oh man, you’re gonna learn a whole bunch of lessons real quick. College ex's make even better teachers than high school ones do.

These people might just be as lost and confused as you are, but they’re still going to teach you things you never would have discovered otherwise. The only way this happens though is if you realize that though they may be just as stupid as you are, but they can all still teach you something.

The biggest piece of advice I can give is to meet people in the grades above you; they’ve already gone through what you’re about to experience. As someone who doesn’t have any older siblings, being “adopted” by a few upperclassmen was a game-changer.

Part of the reason I even feel confident enough to write this is because I have more than just my freshman experience to lean on. I have the lessons everyone else around me has learned too. Trust me, freshman year is going to be a lot easier if you rely on the experiences of your Trojan Family instead of trying to go it alone. It’ll save you some trial and error, that’s for sure.

College is tough no matter who you are, or where you come from. If you want to avoid unnecessary difficulties and make your freshman year something to enjoy, you’re going to need some help. Please forgive me for being cheesy one more time, but funny thing about help is, all you need to do to get it is ask.

Or, honestly, just go visit a campus rooftop every once in a while. You’ll learn plenty of stuff up there without even realizing it, and might even get famous for it.