1. Alone time is a necessity.
So you’re leaving for college and everyone tells you to spend as much time out of your room as possible. The common advice is to leave your door open and say hi to everyone that passes. This seems like a great idea until you’re two weeks into school and have not had a minute of alone time unless you’re showering or going to the bathroom. Don’t take the advice from Uncle Jim who went to college in the 1980s. It’s ok to close your door and bask in the glory of being alone.
2. Procrastination is normal.
We have all heard the advice to get your work done right away and to NEVER PROCRASTINATE. Seems like sound advice, right? No. That junior Sarah who tells you to write your papers as soon as you get the assignment is lying to you. There is a fine line between doing your work right away and keeping your sanity and, sweetheart, your sanity is more important. Go watch Netflix and push the paper off a few hours, you won’t regret it for more than a day.
3. You won’t have much free time.
This may seem like a lie, but it’s not. Everyone claims that having 3 hours of class a day means the rest of your day is completely free. Let’s just throw in time to get to class and to eat, and that’s close to another 2 hours. Then you’re supposed to be getting at least 8 hours of sleep and need at least an hour for showering and getting ready for class. We could always add in office hours for about 2 hours a day. I’m not even sure if I should mention the hour of exercise that’s supposed to happen. On top of that, let’s throw in the 30 hours of out-of-class “studying” that we’re told to do each week–about 4.5 hours a day. That’s already 21.5 hours of the day completely scheduled out. Now let’s say you have one club meeting a day; bump that number up to 22.5 hours. What are you going to do with all that free time you have??? A whole 1.5 hours!!!!!
4. Bring all 50 pairs of shoes.
This needs no explanation. You will wear every pair within the first 30 days.
5. Instant gratification becomes a priority.
Everything deserves a reward. Every. Little. Thing. Compensate yourself for doing 30 mins of work without checking Snapchat. If you can stay off TikTok for 5 hours that’s a whole movie on Netflix. Instant gratification becomes the only thing keeping you from procrastinating for longer than necessary, and that is perfectly fine. Have that lavender latte waiting for when you finish a paper. Work becomes so much easier when you know there’s something waiting for you when you finish.