For my entire life, being a student has been a defining aspect of my identity.
First, spending 14 years in primary education, then the past four years as a university student, my existence has quite literally revolved around schooling in one way or another. So, the transition from the familiarity of academic life to the uncharted territory of adulthood fills me with a mixture of complicated emotions. While I’m hesitant to bid farewell to this part of my life, it also serves as a catalyst for reflection — an opportunity to distill the lessons learned and experiences gained over the course of my university years. I am compelled to share the insights I’ve gained from my journey — insights that may serve as guideposts for those just beginning their own journeys. In the spirit of paying it forward, I present to you 10 pieces of advice I wish I’d received when I first started at Dal.
1. Step out of your comfort zone: University is the time to explore new parts of yourself! Curious about something? Go try it out! One of the things I’ve learned is that your friends may not always want to try the same things as you, but that shouldn’t stop you from doing it anyway! None of my friends were into breakdancing, but I always wanted to try it out so I mustered up the courage to go by myself. At first, I felt awkward not knowing anybody else in the breakdancing society but eventually, I made friends and it was a great experience!
2. Do homework right away: In the first year, especially if you’re taking science classes, you’ll probably have a lot of homework assignments that might not be too difficult, but take a lot of time. Try to do these in between classes or right after you’re done for the day! This will leave you plenty of time to hang out with your friends without having to worry about deadlines.
3. Set yourself up for high grades: Make sure to do well in the assignments worth a smaller amount of your grade and for assessments that are easy. This will make sure that even if you don’t do as well on a hard midterm, your grades for the other things in the course pull you through. Taking even the less important assignments seriously was something I wish I learned to do sooner!
4. Don’t stress about making friends: I expected to be best friends with my first year dorm roommate, but I wasn’t! And that’s totally okay. You’ll find the people you click with as you go through uni, so don’t panic if it doesn’t work out with the first people you come across. Try to get involved in activities and clubs you’re genuinely interested in, and you’ll definitely find your group of people! Also, don’t be shy about introducing yourself to somebody in class! Many of my closest friends today are thanks to that small step of courage I took to just reach out.
5. Don’t forget to stay connected to your family: It’s really easy to stop contacting your parents and siblings at home when your entire life is now at university but it’s important to make a consistent effort to stay connected. I often found that my family’s encouragement gave me the strength to keep going when the stress from uni was really getting to me. They can provide different perspectives on things that my friends cannot and I really appreciated having this extra source of support. If you’re not close with your family, try to stay in contact with friends and people outside of uni who are important to you! An external source of support ensures that you never get isolated.
6. Don’t take classes you hate: I’ve taken a few electives that I wasn’t interested in because I heard they were “easy” classes. Big mistake! Not being interested in the content made me have zero motivation to do any of the work, which actually made the class more difficult. Don’t repeat my mistake. Make sure that you’re at least somewhat interested in all the classes you take. This will make the semester a lot easier to get through.
7. Make use of available resources: You pay a lot of money to Dal. Make sure you’re getting as much out of it as possible. Go to the Dalplex, make sure to use your dalCard as a bus pass, use the Writing Center, use the study spaces, use the library to access books you wouldn’t be able to otherwise, use the DSU food bank, go to the Loaded Ladle for free food, use the counseling services at the Student Health and Wellness center, go to free campus events, join clubs and societies, and probably much, much more. All these resources are free and they can make your uni experience much better! I wish I’d started using some of these resources earlier.
8. Find a balance between studying and freetime: Think about what you want to do after university and what kind of grades you need to achieve that goal. Thinking of doing master’s/law school/med school? You’ll probably need to spend much more time studying to get better grades than some other career paths. However, still make sure to carve out time for yourself and for hanging out with friends! Planning on getting a job right after uni? Make sure to check out co-op and internship opportunities. While studying is still important in this case, it’s likely that most companies will not care about your grades in specific courses and will instead just check whether you have a degree or not. You have a bit more leeway in terms of how much time to spend studying, so get out there and have fun!
9. Learn to eat healthy: Without your parents cooking for you, you’ll quickly realize just how difficult it is to feed yourself three times a day, for the rest of forever. So spend time right now to learn how to do it. Learn to budget and figure out how to shop frugally for all your groceries week by week. I found that while I enjoy learning to make new dishes, I hate having to cook after a long day of classes. So I’ve learned how to meal prep in a way that works for me. I cook something new in bulk at the start of the week and eat it throughout whenever I don’t feel like cooking. This means I get to cook new things, which I love, while also making sure I don’t starve from laziness. Find the balance that works for you!
10. Enjoy the journey: Trust me when I tell you that university will be over in the blink of an eye. Every week will seem to drag on but one day, you’ll wake up and be in the last semester of your undergrad, writing an article like this. So make sure to enjoy the journey! There will be lots of ups and downs and things but it’s important to realize that this time too, will pass. So make the most of it and have fun!