There’s no getting around the fact you are a freshman. This fact should make you both anxious and ridiculously excited. Forget about high school, these are the true best 4 years of your life. However there’s a few rookie mistakes all freshmen commit. Here’s 5 tips for freshmen to prevent you ruining it your first semester.
1) Think you own the school
Simply, because you don’t. No matter how loud, cocky, or bold you are, none of this will help in your quest to become apart of campus life. It will just come off as if you’re immature.
2) Think you should keep to yourself
This is the other side of the issue. You DESERVE to be at this school, you made the cut. Now it’s your right to enjoy all that comes along with it- without acting like example 1 above.
3) Lose self-control
Or to put it modernly, there are some things you should turn down for. When partying starts to hurt you, your friends, your academics, or earns you a criminal record, you need to find some moderation. Like it or not, you are here for an education, and you have to make it a priority. That said, I fully encourage you to party and get wild; as long as you manage the other parts of your life as well.
4) Hang out only with the first group you meet at school
You finally made some friends here. Maybe floormates, maybe high school peers, maybe just whoever you sat with at the dining hall one night. No matter which, you still need to branch out. I’m sure they’re great, but there are thousands of other people out there and you cannot limit yourself. Also, the first group you meet tend to be clingy and dependent, and this could cause future problems. By no means do you have to ditch them, but don’t allow yourself to quit being social
5) Do too much or too little
Somewhere during these years, you gotta find some moderation. Start freshman year. You do not want to spread yourself thin and join every club, sport, and event. You’ll be too busy running around to focus on each one of them. Inversly, DO NOT DO NOTHING. You will spend your days in the dorm abusing NetFlix and miss out on all the awesome things you could be doing instead. Find a club or two, rush, join intramurals, and then you’ll find yourself looking forward to every day.
Central Florida, born and raised, contrary to tourist’s popular belief, Disney is NOT where he spent most of his days.
Anthony now resides in Gainesville, FL where he attends the University of Florida.
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