Success: 50 Things I Wish I'd Known In College
We have many UC Davis students who enjoy having their student housing with Tandem Properties. This week the Huffington Post ran a story of 50 Things I Wish I’d Known In College. Here are a few choice items:
- Your friends will change a lot over the next four years. Let them.
- In college more than ever before, songs will attach themselves to memories. Every month or two, make an archive of these songs. Ten years out, they’ll be as effective as a journal in taking you back to your favorite moments.
- Take naps in the middle of the afternoon with reckless abandon.
- Adjust your schedule around when you are most productive and creative. If you’re nocturnal and do your best work late at night, embrace that. It may be the only time in your life when you can.
- If you write your best papers the night before they are due, don’t let people tell you that you “should be more organized” or that you “should plan better.” Different things work for different people. Personally, I worked best under pressure – so I always procrastinated… and always kicked ass (which annoyed my friends to no end). 😉 Use the freedom that comes with not having grades first semester to experiment and see what works best for you.
- Become friends with your favorite professors. Recognize that they can learn from you too – in fact, that’s part of the reason they chose to be professors.
- Carve out an hour every single day to be alone. (Sleeping doesn’t count.)
- Go on dates. Don’t feel like every date has to turn into a relationship.
- Don’t date someone your roommate has been in a relationship with.
- When your friends’ parents visit, include them. You’ll get free food, etc., and you’ll help them to feel like they’re cool, hangin’ with the hip college kids.
- All-nighters are entirely overrated.
- For those of you who have come to college in a long-distance relationship with someone from high school: despite what many will tell you, it can work. The key is to not let your relationship interfere with It’s important to think about the future, but it’s more important to be present in the now. You won’t get the most out of college if you think of it as a stepping stone.
- Take a lot of pictures. One of my major regrets in life is that I didn’t take more pictures in college.
- Your health and safety are more important than anything.
- Ask for help. Often.
- Enjoy every second of the next four years. It is impossible to describe how quickly they pass.
- This is the only time in your lives when your only real responsibility is to learn. Try to remember how lucky you are every day.