Whether or not you’re a first-year student like me, congrats! You’ve made it through a semester of university. I’m sure it’s been filled with many highs and lows and overall I hope you’ve had an amazing experience and that you’re doing well. Because this has been such a huge change for me, I wanted to take a minute and reflect on what I’ve learned over the past twelve weeks.
Everyone who said your high school marks are going to drop was 110% correct
In high school, I was always a 90% average student and needless to say, after coming here, that was not the case. And you know what? That’s totally okay! There has been so much change and it’s difficult to adapt to these new situations. I definitely wasn’t used to the workload and the self-accountability that would come with coming to university, but now that I’ve had these experiences, I know how I need to start the new semester in order to do better than I have in the past.
If you need help, get it.
I learned this one a little too late… but seriously, if you need help don’t be afraid to ask. Your profs, your TAs, they want to help you. As a student in artsci, we have access to a peer tutoring platform which is another place to reach out to if you’re struggling in a class. Overall, you will probably hit a point in at least one of your classes where you are just completely lost, but there will always be someone to help you. One thing I like to remember is that if I’m paying for this education, I want to at least get something out of it.
Literally, no one cares if you are eating alone…
In my first couple of days, I was absolutely TERRIFIED to be caught in the dining halls eating along, but at a certain point, it’s going to happen. All of us are on different schedules so just eat when it’s convenient to you (and make sure you eat because it can be easy to forget!!) On a similar subject, there is no need to feel pressured to go out every weekend. During all of September, I was always so anxious for the weekends and the idea of not having any plans, but \ no one is going to judge you for not partying every single weekend! We all need to have nights where we just watch a movie or even catch up on some homework and personally, I find doing something all the time to be soooo exhausting.
Instead of procrastinating, take real breaks.
Now this one is a lot easier said than done, but one thing I’ve always regretted is the amount of time I could save if I just didn’t procrastinate. The amount of time I spend just sitting with my laptop open, doing nothing but scrolling through my phone is absurd. I’ve begun to take notice of my screentime instead of just ignoring it and the amount of time I spend staring at my phone doing nothing is an issue I desperately want to fix. If I just spent half an hour to an hour working non-stop, I would get so much more done in a short period of time. Procrastination is honestly the absolute worst and the time I’ve been wasting is the only thing inspiring me to change.
Keeping up with Old Friends is Difficult
If there’s one thing I miss from home (besides having decent food), it’s my friends; and the worst part is I honestly forget sometimes. If any of them are reading this article please don’t take this personally, I love you all the most, but to everyone else, it’s hard to have calls, or even just keep up with one another. All my friends run on different schedules and the post-secondary lifestyle is just so much to keep up with that I forget how much I miss them.
Even if the last semester wasn’t great for you, a whole new one just started with the chance to start over. So, good luck in the new semester, and be sure to relax. You’ll do great :)