Graduation is a bittersweet time of year. We know it’s coming all year long. In fact, if you think about it, we know it’s coming for at least 4 years leading up to it. Regardless, it’s still a shock when May rolls around and we have to say goodbye to the seniors—the ones we have looked up to and watched rule the school. Some students are sad—they already miss their friends and they haven’t even walked across the stage yet! Some students aren’t sad, but nervous. If seniors are graduating, that means they’re next; can they really be growing up that fast?
Whether or not the ceremony is filled with joy, or sadness, or just pure anxiety, graduation means different things to different students. It can affect us all- regardless of our year.
Graduation for seniors is about the next step. They are moving on and saying goodbye to their classes, their dorm rooms or school-houses, and hello to a job (hopefully), bills and real life. They are leaving their friends and meal plans and going into the real world to fend for themselves. Will they make it? Are they happy or scared? Are they wondering if they should have invested in the 5-7 year college plan instead of 4? It’s scary and different but can also be a breath of fresh air. Your senior friends can pat themselves on the back. They are walking away with an arsenal of knowledge, a college degree, and hopefully not too many student loans. Either way, they made it and should be incredibly proud. They can throw their cap up high!
For juniors, graduation is odd. It means your friends are leaving, you’re getting older, and somehow, someway, you’re next. In the blink of an eye you went from being a new kid on campus and barely making your way from class to class and now you’re just two short semesters away from the stage walk your friends are facing. There has to be a mistake? How would you have missed something as huge as three years of college? Could the old saying be true, and time really does fly when you’re having fun? Or, have you just been so busy working and studying that the last 6 semesters have slipped you by? Breathe. You will make it just fine. This is the last summer before your big year. Enjoy it, relax. When you return in the fall, it’s your time to shine and prepare to ride the rollercoaster of your senior year! It’s filled with emotions, ups and downs, and plenty of “real world” anxiety.
Sophomores are excited by graduation. They think to themselves, and announce of their facebook pages, “Whoo, I’m half way done with my college career”. Little do they know the next two years of their lives are about to pass by even faster than the previous two. Sophomore year was exciting. You finish the year, go home for summer and come back an upperclassman. It’s a strange but exciting feeling.
Freshmen might feel just about as weird as the seniors do when graduation rolls around. Didn’t they just graduate? How can it be May already, there is absolutely no way a whole year has past? Freshmen spend the year soaking up all that college has to offer. They study hard, meet new friends, and experience a whole new chapter of life. When May hits after their first year there really is no other option other than to just reflect and think back on everything you just spent the last 8 months doing. How did you do? Did you like it? Did you make it? How were your grades? Will you ever make it to where those old kids are in their college robes?
No matter what year you’re in, or how far you’ve made it in your college career, there is no denying how fast time flies. You made it through another year and summer is here once again. It’s quite an accomplishment and shouldn’t be taken lightly—even if you aren’t the one in the robes (yet—you’ll get there!).
Now is the time to breathe. Relax. Enjoy your summer, keep working hard—no matter what year you’re in, and stay positive. The 4 years of college are supposed to be fun, challenging, rewarding and exhausting all at the same time. It will fly, so you may not be the one the stage this year, but your time will come. Be prepared!
-Ring Queen
I’m reading Beginning and Intermediate Algebra
Many high school seniors are starting to receive their acceptance letters and dreaming of going off to their freshman year of college. Although it can be a little nerve-racking, freshman year the journey of greatness begins. Some days it may look like a wild jungle with swerved paths and venomous snakes. Other days, it may look like a peaceful prairie, so much so, that you’re forced to walk slower and take in the fresh air. Whether your journey is full of more jungles or prairies, three same truths still remain. First, you are a freshman. Second, you are finally walking the path alone. And third, you just want to keep it FRESH. As a freshman myself I am here to give some advice so that most of your days can be a peaceful journey through a beautiful prairie.
Tip 1: Go find where your classes are on campus before the first day of school. I have made the mistake of carrying around a campus map while frantically searching through hallways to find classes on the first day. I’ve learned that it’s so much easier to at least know the building that you’re in. Finding room numbers in generally easy because there will be signs on the walls. Just allow yourself extra time the first day in case, but know where your classes are!
Tip 2: Stick to your values. There is always that college freshman that is finally off the leash for the first time and completely loses it, don’t let that be you. It’s okay to experiment, try new things, and meet new people. It becomes way too much when you can’t recognize yourself anymore. Remember where you came from, what you were taught, and who you are. Doing a complete 180 in terms of your personality will leave your old friends confused, your new friends unsure of the real you, and your parents completely worried. I’m not saying that change is a bad thing, just make sure if you’re doing any morphing that your morphing into superman and not the evil villain.
Tip 3: Keep up on homework. Cramming for test is normal, at least in my case. Homework is different than a test; it’s the easy points and attendance that can really help your grade in a gen-ed class. Rack up the easy points and take a little stress off your test cramming session. It might be a cheap shot, but its smart shot as well.
Tip 4: Don’t go around the carousal and try to get with every horse. By this I mean, have respect for yourself. The worst thing you can do freshman year is start out with a bad reputation. Keep it classy and never get too trashy. Flirting is a given, but rounding the bases with multiple people will give you a terrible name. Nothing is harder than shedding off a bad rep. Strive to maintain respect for yourself, gain respect from your peers, and never lose respect from those who love you most.
Tip 5: Don’t overload classes your first semester! The first semester of college is full of so many new experiences and new friends. Allow yourself the time to get situated to your new life and spend time with the new people that you’ve met. There is nothing wrong with easing into it the first semester. Make sure you don’t add unnecessary stress to your life by taking too many credits right away.
Tip 6: Keep in touch! It can be easy to get caught up in your new friends and slowly start to lose touch with old ones. Make a point to stay in contact with your high school friends. You don’t want to come home for winter break and have to start from scratch telling them all about how college is going. Fill them in as you go! There’s something amazing about high school friendships. Many people let them slip, always try to hold on.
I hope these tips will be useful as you begin this new and exciting journey. Just remember, that although the scenery changes, you choose your own path. Stay true to yourself, have a good time, and always keep it FRESH-MAN.
-Speedy G.
I’m reading Foundations of Nursing in the Community: Community-Oriented Practice
In all of my six years in college (be nice I am working on my third degree) I have never lived in a dorm. I never saw the appeal of living in the dorms. I just saw them as small, generally smelly spaces that hundreds of people have slept in prior to me arriving. So I always chose to live off campus.
Sure there were some drawbacks including parking passes and paying rent, but there were also a lot of perks. I have my own space, my own room, and my own bathroom. I had a roommate in my first apartment, but at least I got to choose who they were. I believe that the biggest perk of living off campus was that it taught me how to be responsibile. I had to work to pay my rent and bills, so I quickly learned how to multi-task. This also taught me about the art of money management and budgeting. Trust me, living in Florida and having your electric shut off in the middle of summer will really teach you to pay your bills on time! Here are some of the reasons that I think it is better to live off-campus while in college:
Reason #1 – You are in charge of every aspect of your living situation. If you want to leave dishes in the sink and come home drunk at 3am you can.
Reason #2 – It teaches you economic responsibility. You are in charge of paying rent, bills and all the other expenses.
Reason #3 – You get to have pets (If your landlord allows it).
Reason #4 – If you need to, or choose to, have roommates you are the one selecting them not a college admission counselor.
Reason #5 – You get your own kitchen and bathroom.
Reason #6 – If you have odd living tendencies (like needing to mop your floors three times a day) then you are free to do it without judgment in your own space.
Reason #7 – You are always accountable, again teaching you even more responsibility. It is your job to get up and head to class, there is not a friend down the hall who will bang on your door to make sure you are awake.
Reason #8 – FREEDOM! There is no RA overseeing your behavior and there is no need to sign in or out.
Reason #9 – You learn the reality of how much things cost. Buying dishes, towels, curtains, etc. gets SUPER expensive quickly and it is better to learn that lesson sooner than later.
Reason #10 – You get to have a car that you don’t have to walk a mile to get to.
Can you think of any other benefits of living off campus? Sound off in the comments below!
Lovejoy
I’m reading Human Resource Management
As freshman year looms ahead, it doesn’t take a fortune teller to guess how you’re feeling right now: excited out of your mind and freaked out of your gourd. In our opinion, you have good reason to feel that way. Between classes and keg stands, college virtually guarantees certain challenges.
- Do you have a plan in place to avoid the freshman 15?
- Do you know how to prepare and follow through with a limited budget?
- What if you and your roommate are The Odd Couple when it comes to cleanliness and sleep schedules? How will you go about peacefully resolving issues? Address them as they come or lay out ground rules?
- Are you aware of the major causes of stress in college and how to deal with them?
- Are you worried about the pressure to make lifelong friends?
If you think about these pitfalls before you get to school we promise your year will be more successful—health-wise, academically and socially. Click on the cover of our survival guide below to open a super handy PDF file.
Lovejoy
I’m reading A Writer’s Reference
Wonderbread’s Schedule
7:10: Alarm starts going off. Several slurry expletives uttered.
7:30: Two snoozes later, I stumble to my desk and hit the books. Why do you have to be so funny every night Jon Stewart? Why? Now I’m doing my Italian homework before class. More curses.
8:15: Get ready for class
8:50: Out the door!
9:00: First class of the day, Italian. It involves speaking in a foreign language to my peers. I cannot name one thing about this I like. Nevertheless, this is my 5thsemester of it.
10:00: Lecture
11:00: Optional Lecture/nap. I call it optional because I have a good friend in the class who I know will have notes if I miss it. Also it’s Art History and across campus. I usually go but today I’ll take a nap in the Student Center before work (because I have no pride and I have a home, okay? It’s just too far to walk without cutting into nap time).
12:00 – 2:00: Work at my amazing library job I can’t believe I landed. I usually get to sit at the front desk and get paid to study, and it’s subsidized by Federal Work-Study so I get paid an ungodly sum for doing this. Score.
2:15: Back in the ole dorm room or scrounging for food and caffeine at this point for afternoon labs, precepts (graded group discussion), or reading/writing for the next day’s class.
If I don’t have any afternoon classes at this point it is extremely tempting to nap/ play DJ Hero/ call the bestie and piece together what happened Saturday night /watch court TV, etc., but 3 years into college and I’ve learned that riding the tide of activity from earlier in the day is how I get some productivity in-between classes and having a life.
Nighttime is an adventure waiting to happen. You’re surrounded by 1,000s of people your age with free time. Get to it!
Frat Bro’s Schedule
Well I know Wonderbread likes to start her day off at 7:10 am. But the rest of us normal college students like to start our day at the latest point possible. After 3 years of college, I have followed some golden rules when it comes to scheduling for classes.
- The golden rule! Never schedule a Friday class if at all possible!
- Try not to schedule a class before 11am. This has a couple positives.
- You have enough time to wake up before a test after studying all night and get that last couple hour cram session in.
- You don’t have to worry as much about the angel on your right shoulder telling you it’s a bad idea to go out during the week.
- For those of you trying to get a job make sure you clump your classes together so you have time to work after/before.
- Try and live as close to the building that the majority of your classes will be as possible. This is clutch for that extra 10 minutes of sleep!
- If you know you are going to have a really hard class. Try and give yourself an hour or so before it. This will give you time for homework and hopefully you wont want to shoot yourself after having already sat through lecture all day.
My day:
7:30 – dreaming about… wouldn’t you like to know
10:40- snooze….
10:50- class is in ten minutes, jump out of bed throw on a hat and some clothes (for some reason they don’t like when you show up in your birthday suit)
11:00 walk in to class as it starts; I try to sit towards the front to help my already dwindling attention rate.
12:00- some other class
1:00 lunch
2:30 – last class
I have taken one or two night classes these aren’t bad depending on the teacher and your willingness to sit in a classroom for 2 and a half hours.
5:00 usually head into work to be a server. I get to hear a lot of people complain for the next 4 hours.
Wonderbread
I’m reading Microeconomics
