Honestly, I never would have guessed that my first published article would be an unoriginal advice journal, but six weeks into my first semester of college and I started thinking about the things I did as a senior that have helped me adjust better the last few weeks. I was planning on just talking to my friends that were seniors and telling them some of these things, but decided to share it with everyone incase one of you finds any of this helpful.
I learned a lot my senior year of high school and I grew a lot. I was lucky that I came to college incredibly prepared for the responsibilities it brings. I wasn't aware of it then, but as a senior I experienced a lot of things that have helped me in my first few weeks here at Baylor. These are a few things that would be wise to start doing as you're finishing up your high school experience.
Spend time thinking, writing, and reading. Don't disregard this because it's coming from the journalism major; trust me, you will need these skills regardless of your field of study. You will need to be able to accumulate your thoughts and put them on the page. Also, you will have to read. A lot. Like all the time. A professor can assign you 70 pages to read by the next class and you just have to do it. I would say 70 percent of the homework that I have had this year is reading. 25 percent is writing; that leaves about 5 percent of actual homework. People in my english class last year always complained about having to read 20 pages a night. I would kill for that amount this year.
Learn how to be alone and not lonely. For some reason, high schoolers have a hard time with doing anything alone. I was that person up until I was a senior. I wouldn't go somewhere if I didn't have anyone to go with and I would never eat alone. When I became a senior I think senioritis just seeped into every area of my life because I could care less what people thought about me when they saw me doing something by myself. I literally wasted no energy on thinking about what other people thought and it was great. No one even pays attention to anyone else in college. I can say in all honesty that no one cares that you're sitting by yourself at a table and one fourth of the cafeteria is probably people eating by themselves as well. You'll be alone a lot in college. Hate to say it but you kind of have to get over that or you're really gonna struggle.
Start eating healthy. Ok so like, I'm still working on that one but I hear it's important.. DRINK SO MUCH WATER. Honestly you walk everywhere and you don't want to do anything else to add to the embarrassing pant you'll be trying to control by the time you get to class. I had a professor ask me if I was okay because I was out of breath when I walked in his class. I told him I just ran to get there on time. Actually, I had let myself get insanely dehydrated. Start getting in the habit of drinking a lot of water and eating better and if you're lucky you will carry that with you to college.
Figure out who you want to be. I think one of the most important things to figure out before you go to college isn't who you are but who you are striving to be. You will meet a ton of new people and if you know who you want to be it will be easier to surround yourself with people who will bring that out of you. If you know you don't want to party in college you will probably make friends who have that same value and you will be more likely to stick to that. College is exciting because you get to start over. You can be whoever you want, just try to have some idea of who that is before you get there.
Be friendlier and learn how to speak to adults. Having people skills is so important when you go to college, especially if you go into it not knowing many people. When you meet someone new they probably won't remember your name but they'll remember the impression you left. Adults are a different story. They probably will remember your name, along with the impression you made. You have to learn how to communicate with adults because when you get to college, you're supposed to be one. How can you be an adult if you don't know how to talk to one? Plus, you have to start thinking about jobs and the future and all of that adult stuff.
Stop relying on your parents so much. I can't stress enough how much easier it will be for you if you're already a relatively independent person. I've seen a few parents in the laundry room with their kids on the weekends. Please don't be that person. Know how to do your own laundry.
Learn how to manage your time.I was involved in a time consuming activity in high school that kept me really busy and taught me how to prioritize my time. Because I was always so busy in high school, people would tell me I would have a lot of free time on my hands in college. I'm not really sure where this mysterious free time is or how I can access it but I've honestly never been so busy. If I'm not doing something with friends, I'm working, eating, and occasionally sleeping. This could vary depending on what school you go to but in most cases you're probably going to have a lot more homework than you did in high school. I'm constantly studying or working on a paper or reading about things I could only dream of understanding. Having fun is part of college; know how to have fun and still have time to do all of the things you need to do.
Basically, college is a lot more fun when you already know how to pull it off but tbh we're all just pretending we have it all together; I'm supposed to be writing an English paper right now. How 'bout that time management am I right???
