College is what you make of it.
College is a lot different than high school. If you don't want to do your homework, you don't have to. If you don't want to go to class, you don't have to. If you don't want to hang out with friends you don't have to. That being said, your college experience is really what you make of it. You do not have anyone there to tell you to go to class or do your homework and your mom isn't there to wake you up in the morning. If you want to succeed in college, you have to work at it yourself. If you want friends in college, you cannot just sit in your dorm room all the time, you have to get out there. I urge you to at least make a mental list of all the things you want to accomplish in college and then set out to make those things happen.
You will third wheel with your friends and that's ok.I ended up third-wheeling my best friends probably about 70% of the time. And you know what? I loved it. Maybe that's because two of my best friends were dating each other but in any case, it can be fun. At first, I started to get extremely down on myself, wondering why they weren't the ones third-wheeling me, however when you change your attitude, it can actually become extremely entertaining. Learn to be friends with whoever your friends are dating. Trust me it will save you many boring and envy-consumed outings. So do yourself a favor. Relax and have fun. And just because you don't have a significant other right now, doesn't mean you never will.
Call home like every day.
Your parents want to know what/how your doing. That's pretty much common sense. But something I did not realize until I got to college was that updating your parents on whats going on in your life is actually very fulfilling. I talked on the phone with my mom at least every other day my entire first year of school and it was great. She knew all of my school struggles, my plans, and my drama. Because you are now an adult, your parents cannot force you to do anything however they give great insight into your life decisions. Let your parents become your best friends and tell them everything.It is ok to not participate in every single social activity.
Let me share with you a little secret. College is full of social activities. Ok that's not really a secret but what I didn't know before coming to college was the fact that there is always a party going on somewhere and someone always wants to hang out. I'm not kidding when I say that I could have probably filled my time 24/7 with social activities. There is always something to do. That being said, you need to learn that it is ok to say no to hanging out with your friends once in a while. There is a fine line between having no friends, and failing all of your classes because you were too busy partying. If you say yes to every hang out in college, you will find yourself not having any time for school (which is the real reason we are in college in the first place). Sometimes you need to turn down the YOLO mindset just a little bit because, yes sometimes it seems like you need to live every moment to the fullest and hang out with friends, however we need to remember that our responsibilities are part of living a fulfilling life.
You do not have to be best friends with everyone.
You will meet A LOT of people in college. At the beginning of my freshman year, I probably met at least 5 new people a day. While its good to have an open mindset, it isn't good to expect that you will become best friends with everyone you meet. By the end of freshman year I probably had 15 phone numbers in my contact list from people I only met once. Get used to introducing yourself, where you are from, and what your major is because I probably said those things at least 100 times my first two weeks of college.
Do not expect to have the same views and ideas about the world that everyone else does. You will meet some very different people at college. You do not have to be best buddies with them but you do however need to respect their ideas and be kind.
