I have never been really great at taking advice. I tend to listen to spiels given by people who love me, nodding and agreeing, and then immediately throwing it out the window and doing my own thing. However, I decided that if I could go back in time and start my freshman year I would heed some advice, so I decided to give and take it from the wisest person I know, me.
Here is my advice for my freshman year (and if anyone else wants to pick up some things that might apply to them):
1. Talk to your professors! They are nicer than you think they are!
2. Do your laundry before you run out of clean underwear. Stop saying you’ll get to it later. I promise you, it’ll save you from wearing a Victoria Secret thong at 10 AM that was NOT meant to be worn through a 2 hour Psych lecture (this is not spoken from past experience…)
3. You are not missing out on anything if you chose to stay in. Give yourself time to be alone, binge a whole season of The Mindy Project. It’s okay to not be go-go-go.
4. Buy the extremely big and bulky and dramatically huge size laundry detergent.
5. No, the world does not revolve around you.
6. Yes, he totally posted that story to get your attention. It was for you and for you only.
7. Most people want to be in each other’s lives. Don’t be afraid of making the first move. Gaslight everyone into thinking you’re more outgoing and extroverted than you are. Along the way, you might realize that it might be true. How exciting is that?
8. It’s never going to feel like it’s enough time. I’m sorry. I don’t know if this feeling ever goes away.
9. Cherish everything! Become the annoying person who looks around at the party and says some stupid and cliche shit about how this is the “good days” or something along those lines. Don’t worry about sounding stupid, who cares? Everyone around you is too drunk to remember it in the morning anyways. Be corny!
10. On the topic of being too drunk, keep ibuprofen and Vitamin Water™ near your bed when you wake up, even if you may not need it, your roommates might cry of relief when you offer it to them.
11. Stop worrying about meeting new people, your life will be so full of new friends and new love. I know it’s so much easier said than done, but college is so good to you. In the meantime learn to enjoy your own company.
12. Don’t be afraid of doing things on your own. Take the lightrail to Capitol Hill (in the daylight please) and go to some random coffee shop and bookstore and become a different person for the day. UW is huge and sometimes it’s easy to forget that there is a whole world outside your campus.
13. It is better to be alone than to be treated terribly.
14. It is better to be alone than to be treated terribly.
15. IT. IS. BETTER. TO. BE. ALONE. THAN. TO. BE. TREATED. TERRIBLY.
16. Befriend the owner of your favorite Indian restaurant – get on a first name basis. He helps you and your roommates get through finals, heartbreak, homesickness, and non-stop downpours.
17. Speaking of roommates! Never stop being grateful to have ended up with three new best friends. They are the best people to go through the freshman year of college with. They know you better than anyone else over there, you can lean on them.
18. You don’t have to completely forgo who you were to become the new person you’re becoming.
19. Please stop ending things with a guy when you realize that you are funnier than them. Get your god complex in check.
20. Actually, nevermind, keep it. It keeps things interesting.