Advice for People Entering College
– Wash your hair. Wash your sheets. Try to keep your room clean. Cleanliness might not be next to godliness, but it sure as hell is next to happiness.
– Set your alarm for thirty minutes earlier than is strictly necessary. Get up, get some work done, tidy your room, or just sit and enjoy being awake and at peace.
– There will be other parties. If you’re swamped or feeling down, skip this weekend’s rager.
– No one cares if you don’t drink or smoke. Seriously. Do only what you’re comfortable with.
– Put aside time to talk to people from home – parents, siblings, high-school friends. Those relationships don’t have to end just because you don’t see each other every day anymore.
– I know it sometimes seems like everyone else is BFFs with each other and you’re an outsider, but it’s not true. Don’t compare your insides to someone else’s outsides. Everyone has times when they’re feeling lonely, even if it’s not obvious to other people. You’re not strange or unlovable.
– To-do lists. I’m not kidding, people. They’ve saved my life on more than one occasion. They’re super good at keeping from feeling overwhelmed. Make a tangible list of everything you have to do, and you’ll realize you can do it. Also, crossing stuff of to-do lists is orgasmic.
– Procrastination sucks, but don’t beat yourself up over it. Everyone does it.
– If you’re really struggling with starting your work, tell yourself you’ll do fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes is too much? Okay, ten minutes. Five. Just start. You’ll feel so much better once you have.
– That being said, your soul needs a break sometime. Don’t expect yourself to work from sunup to sundown. Give yourself five-minute breaks every hour, fifteen-minute breaks every two-hours — find a schedule that works for you.
– Seriously: sleep. If it’s 11pm and you feel like death, go to bed. Set an early alarm to get the work done the next morning if you have to; just get yourself to bed.
– There might be some really, really rough days. They’ll pass.
– Try not to analyze your life at midnight; everything looks better in the morning.
– Feeling lonely? Reach out to people. Facebook message someone you’ve talked to twice but haven’t really hung out with; invite them to a movie or out for coffee. Chances are, they’ll be as excited to make a new friend as you are.
– I know it’s hard to find time, by try to exercise at least a couple times a week. The benefits of cardio are unbelievable.
– Use the resources available to you – they exist for a reason. Go to tutoring hours. Go to office hours. They might be awkward (they probably will be awkward sometimes, depending on your professor) but they’re worth it.
– Stop beating yourself up over stuff. Got a bad grade on an essay? It happens. Missed a few deadlines? Had a bad interaction with a professor? It happens. Take a deep breath. You’re doing fine.
– Journal every day, or at least a few times a week. It doesn’t have to be in a nice, expensive, leather-bound notebook. You don’t have to doodle cute little cartoons all over the page. You’re handwriting doesn’t have to be nice. Just get your feelings out of your head and onto paper (or a Google doc).
– Sometimes professors are bad or the material is hard. A few bad grades (a few bad semesters, even) aren’t going to kill anyone. C’s get degrees, people.
– Fight for yourself. Don’t be afraid to tell people — your advisors, your professors, your roommate — what you need.
– Some people don’t graduate in four years. It doesn’t make you stupid or inadequate.
– Being a grown-up can be scary, but you’re going to figure it out.
– Everything. Is. Going. To. Be. Okay.
stormborns
dailybridgerton
yousharknotpass
