I think when we leave for college we usually only expect to learn the stuff that we write down in notebooks and read in our $150 textbooks. But I have to say, I learned a TON about life, and since so many of you are gearing up to start college, I thought I'd share some of my insights on what could be the best 4 to 5 (to 6?) years of your life.
1.
Get out of your dorm room. Whether you live with
one roommate or seven like I did, you HAVE to get out at some point, no matter
how much you love them! The first thing I did freshman year was move in with my
best friend, shut the door, and didn’t talk to anyone (yeah, anti-social). Some
of my favorite things to do? Go shopping, visit another friend’s dorm room,
drive around, play sand volleyball, swim, go for a run...which brings me to my next point.
2.
Even if you hate working out, you should work
out. Most college campuses give you free access to the gym AND pool (I did not
know that we had a pool at K-State until like, junior year). Join some classes
or pick a night to work out with a friend. Eating dorm food all the time can
make you feel really sick or gain weight or both, so hit that gym! Believe me, after all the dorm food, when Christmas break rolls around, you will be appreciating mom’s home-cooked
meals more than you ever have before.
3.
Write your name on everything. Anytime you live
with other people, stuff is bound to turn up missing at the end of the year.
Not usually because someone stole it, but because someone borrowed it and lost
it or didn’t return it!
4.
Learn to cook. Eating out can cost you a
fortune, even if it’s from the dollar menu. Easy yet semi-healthy things to
make: spaghetti, nachos with ground turkey (thanks Liz!), Italian chicken (cut
some chicken up, put it in a skillet, when it’s almost done cooking smother it
with Italian dressing), rice, macaroni and cheese.
5.
Dish towels do NOT work as oven mitts. I tried
this once and ended up holding a flaming dish towel in my hand while everyone
was screaming at me and I had no idea what to do, so I dropped it on the
kitchen floor and left a big ol’ burn mark. Invest in oven mitts.
6.
Learn to do laundry. Ask a parent or friend to
help you if you don’t know how to do laundry. I know, it sounds lame, but there
are people out there who have never done a load of laundry (which if that's you, it's okay! there is hope for you!) Fabric softener is
not the same thing as detergent. It WILL make your clothes smell delicious, but it doesn't contain soap.
7. If you decide to go mattress surfing, make sure the
mattress is completely underneath you so you go down the stairs ON the mattress
and not rolling down the stairs behind it.
8.
Invest in a bike. If you go to a large
university like I did, parking is almost impossible, especially if you have
classes later in the morning. Plus parking permits cost around $100 and you’re
never guaranteed a spot and you’re doomed to become one of those vultures that
follows people around the parking lots waiting for them to leave.
9.
Learn the basics of caring for an
apartment/home. I was definitely thankful my dad had taught me how to turn off
the water when I came home and the people above us had overflowed their toilet
and water was gushing in through the vents.
10. Speaking
of neighbors, when you finally move out of the dorms, ask your apartment
complex about their noise policy before you sign the lease. If you plan on
being super noisy and having sub-woofers and blasting Miley Cyrus like our
neighbors of 2009...then you should live in an apartment that allows loud
stuff. You can find apartments that make you sign a “quiet policy” and they
stick to it if you’re wanting peace and quiet!
11. Whether
you’re moving into the dorms or an apartment or a house, make sure you have the
landlord/R.A. write down and sign anything that was already wrong with the
place when you moved in. Like if someone left bananas in a desk chair and it
rotted through the cushion the year before...yeah, you want them to know that
wasn’t you.
12. Fog
machines will set off the fire alarm. So will popcorn if you leave it in there
for seven minutes and then everyone stares at you as you throw the smoking microwave out the front door and your room smells like burnt popcorn for a week. (Love you, Britt!)
13. Get
to know your professors. They want to help you and sometimes if you are
struggling with a class they may boost your grade if they see that you’re
showing effort by coming to talk to them. They also will give you insight on
how you can do better on their tests or help you with study skills or may even
become a mentor for you.
14. Your
dorm room is bound to be a pit, no matter how clean you are. All that stuff and
that small of a space is grounds for disaster. If you’re moving in from only a
few hours away, you don’t need a year’s worth of clothes. Bring them up with
you as the seasons change! Loft your bed and store all of your stuff under it. Those stacked plastic drawers are awesome for storing everything!
15. Skip
the wild parties. I have way too many friends who have woken up and had
absolutely no clue what they did the night before, friends who failed a
semester’s worth of class because they “went out last night,” and even a couple friends who have
thousands of dollars in credit card debt because of weekends spent at the bars. I never went to a party (well, a crazy party) and still had a blast in college.
16. GO
TO CLASS. I know you may have a class that totally sucks and you would so much
rather stay in bed than get up and go sit for an hour while so-and-so professor
babbles on about something you think doesn’t pertain to you...but go to class.
Sometimes you get extra credit for attending on certain days AND it’s usually
the classes that you skip that have the hardest tests (duh, because you skipped
so you didn’t learn the stuff). Failing a class MAY not seem like such a big
deal to you...but if you’re taking an in-state class that’s about $700 that you
just may as well have flushed down the toilet. And odds are you’ll just have to
suffer through it again, so pass it the first time.
17. Invest in rain boots, snow boots, and other things you may need for extreme weather cases. Because when there are frostbite warnings on the news and your car is frozen to the curb (true story) your university probably will not cancel class and you will literally be walking however-many-miles uphill both ways in the snow (or deadly ice in most Kansas cases) and you'll be frozen by the time you get to class.
18. Research
your own classes. Advisors get paid to help you pick classes, and I had an
awesome one, but sometimes they make mistakes and may miss something. Make sure
you know what you need to take to graduate on time, and don’t freak out if
you’re not going to finish in 4 years. In fact, I took 5 years and would highly
recommend it if you’re doing more than one degree. You can check ratemyprofessors.com to see what other people thought of a professor/class before you take it.
19. Get
a job. Even if your parents are handing you money, you should find a job. I
learned more at my college job than I learned in some of my classes. You will
learn patience, how to get along with people, working with money, how to
schedule your priorities, and you’ll make lots of friends.
20. Branch
out. This is one of the biggest mistakes that I made. If I could go back and
redo college, I would have hung out more with friends. I worried so much about
homework that for the first two years, I never really hung out with people.
This is where time management comes in...learn it!
21. Not to be a Debbie-downer...but you cannot trust everyone. Don't sign weird things. Don't make large purchases without talking to your parents. Don't sign tanning contracts (long story) and think about stuff before you do it. If people come to your door saying, "I'm in a competition so you should buy my magazine subscriptions"...just say no!
22. Learn another language. I know, you're like, "Well you're a Spanish teacher so you have to say that." No. I am telling you that when you graduate and you have that extra language (especially Spanish or Chinese) on your resume, your odds of getting hired increase. I challenge you to think of a job where you would never ever use another language.
23. Don’t
procrastinate. You will be sitting in the library at 3 a.m. the morning before
a paper is due wondering if there is a light at the end of this tunnel. (Which
is another point...don’t freak out too much about stuff. It usually gets done
in 99.9% of all-nighter cases). You
will reach a point in college when you are ready to drop out...don’t. You will make it! And remember that Pizza Shuttle is your best friend at 3 a.m. And friends ALWAYS make all-nighters better!
Oh and one thing I forgot, which makes this 24 Things College Taught Me...if you can find the international version of a textbook (usually on E-Bay or Amazon), buy it. The only thing that's usually different is the cover and they are normally about half the price of a regular textbook.
