Things I should have done in college...
1. Started saving
The really funny thing about graduating is that you feel so powerful. You feel like you can take on the world now that you're free from the pangs of daily assignments and online discussions. It lasts through the two hour graduation ceremony (or four if you went to my school) and then you realize "woah, I'm out of excuses to be irresponsible now." Six months later the student loan bills start coming in and, if you were like me, you really didn't know how you were going to pay off $58,000 in your lifetime (have I even MADE that much in my lifetime?) You start crunching numbers to see how many organs you ACTUALLY need to survive and that's not a great place to be. Save that money! Budget for those happy hours in college and you won't have to stress about finances post-grad.
2. Lived on campus
My first semester of college was the only time I ever lived in a dorm on a college campus and it was honestly the greatest experience of my college life. The school I went to had an equestrian team so my roommate would wake up every morning around 5:00AM to feed her horse. It was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life and I met so many people from so many different places in the world. Longboarding to the caf for dinner, goofing off at cheer practice, playing soccer with the English guys on the lawn, and learning how to make beans on toast were all normal occurrences that semester and they're memories I truly cherish.
3. Partied more
I was in a sorority- which you would automatically link to excessively bad decisions. But I also went to a private Christian college so my Greek experience was much more tame than those you read in TOTAL FRAT MOVE. I'm not saying go out and get trashed every night, but definitely hit up those parties with friends, eat Taco Bell at 3AM and then get up for class at 8:00. College is the time to be spontaneous! But, of course, drink responsibly- these people will probably end up being your co-workers someday.
4. Being single
All five years of my college life I was in a serious relationship. While I understand we can't really control who we fall for or how long we date, for me, it really affected my college experience. My boyfriend was out of college, I was always studying or doing homework, and I really stopped going out and socializing after my second year. Looking back, there were many times where I was held back by my relationship and that's never a cool thing to remember about college. If I could go back, I would have stayed single (or dated someone from my school) and focused on having a good time with my friends rather than missing tailgates and house parties to hang out with my boyfriend.
5. Studied more
99 percent of my college career was spent cramming semesters worth of material into week-long study sessions. My first two years of college I was a Phi Theta Kappa honors student. The subsequent years were much more mediocre. I worked nearly 60 hours a week and usually had more than 12 hours of courses each semester (the joys of switching colleges four times in five years). While I said above that I would have liked to party more, I also would have liked to study more- so basically what I'm saying goes back to #1- save more! Spend your summers saving up for the school year so you can live comfortably in a campus job where they pay you to do your homework and free up your weekends to hang with friends.
At the end of the day, college is only as good as you make it. It's the first time you're really free to do whatever you want. My five years taught me so many things about myself and the world outside of my middle-American bubble and despite the handful of things I would have changed, there are many more that were absolutely perfect. So live it up, make mistakes, be absolutely reckless and unapologetically incredible. Because it happens once and it goes by fast.
