Moderation

The thing I struggled with most during my freshman year was time management. In high school, after a day of classes, you do your extra curriculars, go home, eat dinner, and work on homework. You have parents to make you do your homework and teachers to check up on you. Your life is mostly dictated by outside forces.

When you get to college you have complete freedom over your life. You make your own choices and create your own experience. And if you come from a very strict household as I did, you might have a lot of trouble adjusting to the freedom.

My new found freedom in college caused me problems when it came to the party scene. Since I came from a very uptight household, I never partied in high school. My parents kept tabs on me at all times: I had to call when I arrived no matter where I was going and my parents waited up for me to come home. Coming to college, I could do whatever I wanted, wherever and whenever I wanted. It’s really easy to go out every weekend and go buck wild. Soon you realize that nothing is stopping you from drinking during the week too. Before you know it, you will have established some pretty bad habits like drinking on a Monday or skipping your first class in the morning. I'm not by any means saying don't party. Partying is fun, different from the workload stress and a great way to meet people on campus. Older friends (not necessarily friends of my parents!) have told me that this time in your life doesn't last for ever; once you're older, you won't usually have this instant bond with people you meet. Kind of a mafia that's based on age: that's how I've heard it described.

So yes, by all means, go ahead. Don't waste the opportunity. All I'm saying is that it’s important to take things slow. Ease yourself in to your new found freedom. It’s all about moderation.

If you are in Res, you are living with your friends 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It’s insanely easy to spend all your non-class time hanging out with your friends. So it’s really important to get into the habit early on of taking a little time for yourself. Studying with friends can be great sometimes, but other times you need to take time to get things done by yourself. Study, do laundry, call your parents, or just listen to music by yourself. If you don't start taking time out for you right from the beginning, you'll get stuck in the habit of spending all your time with your friends and really getting nothing accomplished.

Another thing I ran into trouble with was money management. My parents gave me a debit card which had the 2,000 dollars on it that I earned over the summer. The same things I mentioned earlier apply to money. Just be aware of what you are spending. It doesn't seem like you are spending a lot of money when you go to McDonalds or Denny's but the money adds up fast. A good idea is to set a limit for the money you can spend for fun every month and the money you need to spend on the essentials. I never checked my account because I just figured there was no way I was going to spend 2,000 dollars in one year. At the end of the year I checked my account and discovered I had spent close to $1,500. Most banks offer online banking which is a great thing to take advantage of. If you can actually see how much you are spending you can be more careful.

I loved every minute of my freshman year but if there is one lesson I learned it was definitely to take things in moderation, and it's ok to say no sometimes (okay, I guess that’s two lessons, but they are related). Have fun though! People know what they are talking about when they tell you that college will be the best years of your life.