15 Things Every College Freshman Needs to Know to Stay **fReSh**
- Get involved
Join some clubs or competitive teams like the travel club Entrada, WyoFanatics, or Speech and Debate! It’s a great way to meet people and create a support group for yourself at school. - Minimize your distractions
Here’s the deal: bring a gadget to class and you will inevitably get distracted. One minute you’re enthralled with the mechanics of ionic bonds and next, you’re on coolmathgames.com defeating some space cubes. Plus, that retro-vibe is so in right now. You can’t go wrong with a notebook and pen. - Select Your Seat Wisely
You can be doing your absolute most to pay attention in class, and that gorgeously-stickered MacBook on your classmate’s desk in front of you will suck you into season three episode 24 of The Office. There’s some study somewhere that correlates the front-row of a classroom with higher GPAs anyway AND if you must know, Jim and Pam get married and it’s the greatest love story of our generation. - Decorate your dorm
You gotta do it. Bring a cutie into your blank-walled dorm with a prison cot of an XL-Twin bed and suddenly their psychopath detector is RINGING. Just hop on Pinterest, learn to make a couple origami birds or snowflakes or something, bada-bing-bada-boom it’s a home. Joanna Gaines is shaking in her boots. - Understand the Freshman Fifteen
Ohhhh, honey, it is real. It happens. Embrace it. When else in your life can you eat ramen and those mini donuts your mom never let you get whenever you please? This is what freedom tastes like. - Go to sporting events
Sports make people excited. If they don’t, everyone else around you is excited, so your natural inclination to conform makes you pretend to be excited and then emotional-feedback theory does its thing and BAM you’re excited. There’s no better way to meet people than getting sweaty, loud, and excited together in the student section. - Make new friends
Okay, making friends as an adult is HARD. The days of approaching someone on the playground, giving them a cool rock, and becoming locked-in for a lifetime of friendship are gone. (At least I think they are… someone try that out and let me know). But bear in mind, everyone is in the same boat as you are—ride the waves together.***Pro-tip: clubs are one-stop shops for people with shared interests. Join in, meet some rad dudes, and you’ve got a crew.***
- Pencil in some naps
If you have a single second of free-time, schedule a nap. There is nothing more glorious than tiny-sleep. Take full advantage of nap-time before you have a real-person job where, allegedly, napping is discouraged. - Become a fan of fans
If your dorm or apartment is not air-conditioned… boy, oh, boy you’re in for a struggle. You need to stock up on fans… I’m talking box fans, little fans, big fans, those dope necklace fans families wear in Disney World, ALL OF THE FANS. That is unless you like waking up feeling like a slimy little hot-dog human cooking in your own sweat. In that case, do you, weirdo. - Take advantage of the library
No idea if this actually makes you a better student, but there’s something about studying while surrounded by books and silence that makes you feel like an intellectual. Truthfully, we’re all just here for the feels, right? - Stay hydrated
Hmmm, maybe this is just more of a life tip… Drink water or die. Hydrate or die-drate. - Practice self-care
Real talk, college gets crazy. Somedays you find yourself unshowered, eating stale, off-brand cereal right out of the bag, barely fulfilling your bottom hierarchy of needs… Don’t fret though, I’m pretty sure fuzzy socks and facemasks fix this. - Talk to your professors
Anything to get that ‘A’, right? Hahaha, just kidding. Visit office hours to bridge a connection with your professors. These dudes dedicate their whole lives to understanding the ins and outs of certain subject matter and they probably hold the keys to the universe. Get those keys, champ. - Get some ZZZZZZZ's
All-nighters are truly inefficient and horrible. You might finish your work, but you wake up the next morning feeling like roadkill, trying to remember what year it is and how to spell your last name. Pretty soon you’re eight coffees and three five-hour-energies deep and you feel dizzy, nauseous, and still completely exhausted. Not worth it. - Double strap that backpack
Textbooks are not light. Not only are they physically heavy, but they also contain the emotional weight of draining your entire bank account. Needless to say, those boys are hard to carry. Protect your shoulders, strap up, buckle that chest strap—Forget about looking cool. You know what’s actually cool? Healthy joints.
!!!Bonus Tip!!! Call your parents
They put in years and years and years of hard work for you to call and say you’re safe and happy. I promise your mom will be absolutely thrilled to hear about that sandwich you had for lunch, the seemingly unending lecture you just sat through, and all the great new people you’ve met. As long as you’re being safe, sweetie.
If you have a single second of free-time, schedule a nap. ”