Tips for first years and things first year taught me

1. You’re going to meet a lot of new people, some of them you’re going to hit it off with immediately, some you’re going to dislike immediately. That’s totally fine, university is about meeting new people - it doesn’t mean you have to like every single one of them.
2. It’s okay to be nervous, but soon you’ll find that there really was nothing to be nervous about!
3. Plan your courses - there’s no point in taking the hardest course as your elective, it’s just going to mess with your average.
4. Plan your timetable well - you might think you’re going to use that 1 hour break in between classes to get work done. You’re not.
5. You don’t have to be best friends with your roommate, but if you end up liking them, lucky you!
6. Learn how to stand up for yourself.
7. Use your meal plan wisely, don’t go crazy buying a ton of food - because at the end of the year your options will boil down to either starving or asking your parents to add more money onto it. 
8. You will probably hate your major at least once, probably more. Stick to it unless you’re 100% sure you hate it.
9. You will see a lot of things at the beginning of the year that will surprise you, by the end of the year they won’t anymore.
10. You’ll figure out who your real friends are - whether they go to the same school or not.
11. There’s still always going to be that one person who always does better than you on everything - just ignore them.
12. Try not to procrastinate too hard, doing 8 page papers the night before is NOT fun. 
13. The freshman 15 does exist - watch what you eat.
14. Your marks will probably drop a lot, but that’s okay. First year is a time for adjustment.
15. You will learn what your professors and TA’s are looking for in papers, sometimes you just have sacrifice what your personal beliefs are, and write what they want you to. 
16. Boys are disgusting.
17. Girls are also disgusting.
18. At the beginning of the year you’re going to care how you look - it doesn’t matter if you’re going to class, or grabbing breakfast at 9am. That will change - soon you’ll be going everywhere in sweats and the fact that you’re in real clothes will be a miracle.
19. Sometimes you just need to cry.
20. If you think you’re good at procrastinating, you’re going to get 100% better.
21. When writing papers, remember to cite. You don’t want to get called in for academic misconduct. When in doubt, cite. 
22. Sometimes even though you’ve worked for weeks on a paper, you’re still going to end up failing it. That paper you wrote in 2 hours at 5am, 4 hours before it’s due? You might get a 90 on that one though. You never know.
23. Just because you’re at university/college, that doesn’t mean people are more mature, at all.
24. There’s going to be a lot of times when you’re going to have to decide between going out and staying in a working. Just remember that YOLO isn’t going to get you a degree.
25. Free food is the most amazing thing that has ever existed.
26. Actually, free anything is the best thing that has ever existed - never turn down free stuff.
27. Become friends with people outside of your major/faculty, there are going to be times where you’re going to want to strangle them all
28. Don’t punch your roommate just because they made you mad. While it might get you your own room, it’ll also get you kicked out a residence for a while.
29. Make good decisions, maybe not all the time, but make an effort.
30. Sometimes all you need is to just stay in, eat junk food and watch movies - but sometimes what you need is to just go out and have fun. Make sure you get a good balance.
31. First year does count.
32. It’s completely fine to change your major.
33. Residence will probably look like like complete shit the first day. Actually, it’ll probably still look like that the day you move out - but it’ll be a shitty place that you’re going to be sad to leave.
34. There’s going to be people who you meet, and their only intention is to sleep with you. If that’s your thing, go for it, if that’s not, thats perfectly fine as well.
35. Some people are going to have ‘kill counts’. No, that’s not a list of people that they want to kill - it’s who they’ve slept with. If you meet someone that actually calls it that, just stay away from them.
36. There’s a possibility that you might get sexiled.
37. Don’t buy post-it notes from the dollar store, they’re about as sticky as a piece of paper.
38. Keep up with your readings if you don’t want your eyes to fall out of your head when it comes to exam time.
39. Buy used books if you can, those things are expensive.
40. You will probably end up buying texbooks that you’ll never end up using to study. Instead you’ll be using your $200 texbook as a step stool. 
41. If there’s unlimited internet - utilize it! Download and stream as much as you possibly can before the end of the school year. 
42. You’re going to meet a lot of people and wonder how they even got into university/college in the first place.
43. At some point in the year, you’ll probably end up taking care of a drunk person. Take good care of them, you never know when you’re going to need them to help you too!
44. There’s going to be people that show up to lecture/seminar/tutorial that are still drunk from the night before - it’s going to happen, whether it be you are someone else. 
45. There are going to be a lot of attractive people at your school. And it will be awesome.
46. Try your best to actually listen in class - if your prof talks about it for 10 minute, then it’s probably important/its going to be on the final.
47. You will have multiple papers that are due at the same time. Get over it, stop complaining and write them.
48. 90% of the time, you’re going to be poor. Get used to it.
49. Get used to spending money you don’t have - hello loans and credit cards. 
50. At one time or another, you will probably hear someone having sex, or at least hear someone tell a story of them having sex. Earplugs and headphones are an amazing invention. 
51. Clean up after yourself, AND clean yourself. If you have to do the sniff test on your clothes, you probably should wash them. If you can’t remember when you last showered, you should probably get on that. 
52. There’s no guarantee that this is going to be the best year of your life. At least try to make it not suck completely.
53. There’s a club for everything on campus, and if there’s not one you’re interested in - start one!
54. You don’t have to party to have fun.
55. You can become whoever you want to be, it’s a fresh slate. Become the person you want to be, and remember to be yourself.