Back to School... College Advice

Here are some things I had or knew prior to going to college:

University of Texas DKR Memorial Football Stadium

1. Basic Tool Kit - You never know when you will need to make a hole in a wall or hammer some stuff or put together some sort of ikea chair.
2. Walk around the campus. Become familiar with buildings and landmarks. Lessen your stress level for the first day of classes by being confident that you will not get lost. :)
3. Join a group or club that makes the campus smaller and gives you the added benefit of built in friends.
4. Go to class. Even if there is no way to take attendance. Go to class. Every professor is different and some will follow the book and some will just go on tangent after tangent. For the latter, you will fail their tests, every single time if you did not go to class. 
5. Buddy system. Party invite? Take a buddy. Walking to get coffee after dark? Take a buddy. Left your laptop charger somewhere? Take a buddy.

Here are some things I wish I had known or had:

College Life as a Longhorn Band Member

1. Find a physical activity that you like to do. Something to make you stand up from your computer or TV or queso so you don't gain weight. Your high school body is now gone. I don't know why but college makes your adult body show up so make it a good one by moving around.
2. Never take a business school weed out class unless you plan to go to business school. I'm looking at you, microeconomics. Take classes not pertinent to your major at a community college. You don't want to be in that class. You have zero passion for supply-demand graphs. Everyone else in that class has a passion for supply-demand graphs. Therefore, you're screwed.
3. Take naps whenever possible.
4. Never think you can study in your room when you have a roommate. You'll probably end up on opposite schedules and being in your room all the time will just annoy the roommate. Find a study place. Preferably a place where you don't have to buy things to stay there. Like a library. Or a common university area. If your college has a law school or an architecture school, their libraries are going to be the best and the quietest. Those kids are intense.
5. If your degree allows for a semester abroad, do it. I did not have the opportunity but every day I think about the adventures I could have had while young and in a foreign country making new friends and eating new foods and dancing. Just all the dancing. Study abroad. Your adult self will thank your college self. I promise. 

College is a great time. Make mistakes. Find yourself. Learn how be a functioning member of society. While a college degree is a necessity, it's your experiences while in college that make you into a human. Your experiences will give you stories to tell your peers and eventually, maybe, your children. Try to look at college as more than a way to get from A (high school) to B (high paying, professional job). 

And finally, take all four years. Hopefully, it'll be the only four years you'll have to yourself to make the most awesome decisions.

Hook 'em. 

Liz