After surviving her own first year of higher education, college blogger Hannah Holmes offers tips for the high school graduating class of 2010:
Well, it’s finally over. I officially completed my first year of college at 11:30 one Thursday night in May when I turned in my last paper. I did very little but sleep in the days following.
If any of you graduating high school students who are preparing for college in the fall are anything like I was last year at this time, my first piece of advice for you is to relax. Whatever horrors you’re imagining, college is not that bad. My friends and I were actually just discussing the other night how much easier college is than adults will tell you. The infamous “transition” is really not that hard. Chances are, by the time you go to college, you’ll be ready. I also found that my fears of not making any friends were unfounded. I think it’s really probably harder to avoid making friends then to develop meaningful relationships. I mean, whether you go to a small or large school, there are a lot of you trapped on that campus in the exact same situation.
However, it does of course take some effort to make that first year of college a successful spring board for the rest of your time as an undergraduate. I think getting involved quickly was one of the most important and valuable decisions I made. The best way to meet people and have a good, productive time is by joining an on-campus organization about something you’re passionate about. For me, and pretty much everyone I knew, involvement was a major factor in making the first year of college an enjoyable one.
It’s also important to prioritize and schedule while getting involved and working hard in school. I have found using a planner to be another key to success. Planning ahead will help you avoid those awful nights of studying until 3 a.m. for a test in your 8 a.m. class -- at least sometimes. It also may help you in finding the all-important but ever elusive downtime. It does exist. I found it important to take at least a few minutes every day to hang out with friends, take a walk, watch TV or take a 20-minute power nap (something I highly recommend).
Finally, keeping a good perspective is one of the most important things you can do throughout your first year of college, and probably through all four years of being an undergrad. It’s amazing how big an impact the way you view the world around you can have on your day.
Like in anything in life, it’s crucial to focus on the good things that happen, rather than bad. If you keep thinking about how insanely busy you are, how it’s been weeks since you’ve been able to sleep in, how that homework is actually due a week earlier than you thought and how you have to make a poster for an event this weekend, in all likelihood you’re going to lose your mind quickly. I know from personal experience. However, if you dwell on the beautiful weather as you walk to class, how early your lab ended, how good your bed will feel when you finally make it there and how nice it was to catch up with a friend while you made that poster, things won’t look nearly as dismal.
Trust me: Nothing you could possibly do in the first year of college will cause the world to end, no matter how much you think turning an English paper in late might mean the beginning of the apocalypse.
At my orientation, a speaker told a story of a girl who wrote to her parents, telling them how a fire in her dorm caused her to jump from a fifth story window and obtain a concussion, so then she moved in with an older man who so he could care for her, and she was now pregnant with this man’s child and they were going to be married soon. At the end of the letter, the girl wrote, “None of this really happened, but I wanted to make sure you had a proper perspective when I told you about the two C’s and one D I’m getting this semester.”
So work hard in your first year of college, but take time to smell the roses, listen to your iPod and smile. Good luck!