For most incoming freshman, college is the first time you’re on your own, away from family and familiarity, and in charge of your day-to-day decisions, both large and small. You might hear this new level of responsibility referred to as “adulting.” It can be a bit overwhelming at first, but it can also be an amazing opportunity to embrace your own way of doing things. No one else can decide what’s best for you, but I can give you a little advice from my personal expearence that may help you start to figure it out. 

Establishing Balance

One of the best parts of college is how much there is to do. If you really wanted to, you could probably make it through your entire degree path without doing anything other than curricular activities, but you’d be missing out on a lot, particularly at a school like Naz. Once you branch out a little, start to make friends and get involved in clubs, like Golden Creative or the Quidditch Club, you’ll slowly notice yourself being interested and involved in more and more things, and eventually it will get out of hand.

This isn’t a warning about getting involved on campus or spending time with friends, on the contrary, it’s an acknowledgement of how much chaos there can be when you start taking every opportunity you get. You’ll never want to turn something fun down, so the trick becomes maximizing the productivity of your down time and taking advantage of everything you can. You may also have to grapple with the reality that you may have to turn some things down so you can stay on top of everything else. Everyone’s threshold is different so it’s key to know your limits and, if your feel stressed or overwhelmed, take a step back and think about whether or not you can do it all, what means the most to you, and what you could maybe do without. 

Getting it Done

Another large part of adulting is doing all the annoying little things you KNOW need to be done, but have absolutely no desire to do. Some of these things can be pretty universal, but for some people they can be very specific things that they know they procrastinate often. When you’re running from one commitment to another or getting off campus with friends, it might not bother you too much if your room looks like a war zone or your laundry basket looks like it could tip over, but these are the sorts of little things that will catch up to you if they are consistently neglected. In other words, the little things will start to have a negative effect on the big things, and will slowly become more and more difficult to deal with.

It’s easy to overlook something as silly as laundry, but you might wake up at 8am one morning, get wrapped up in academia, socializing  and extracurriculars, and not make it back to your dorm until 8pm……. And that might happen several days in a row. During your free time, evaluate which little things need to be done, and try not to put them off for too long.

Academics?

Oh that’s right, school work is a part of this whole thing too isn’t it? You will inevitably have a lot of work to do during the semester, but how and when you go about doing it will be a relevant factor in how cumbersome it is. A pro tip for me that has always worked: I try get everything done before 7pm. The reason for this is simple, you’ll want to be doing other things, trust me on that one. What this means is that you’ll have to give some serious considerations to when you’re going to wake up, and where you are going to get work done.

For me, there are days where I don’t have class until 10 am. It would be easy for me to sleep in, but if I start getting papers and homework done around 8 am I have plenty of free time at night. Will this always work, or will this tactic work for other people who are more night owl than early bird? Of course not, but the point is to try to make what works for you happen as often as you can. The key here is to figure out a sort of “master plan” that gives you the best output for your time. Time is your greatest asset in college, so you have to figure out what plans are the most functional for you.

You might not want to, but you probably should….

In addition to the daily grind of school, many students may have extensive participation in some clubs or sports teams. I myself do participate in several clubs (Student Veterans Association, Marketing Club) but I am not on a sports team. Despite my time being almost completely prescribed, I try to get some exercise and write in my journal every day. This needs to be stressed; I HATE EXERCISING, but I would not dare to pretend that it isn’t an important part of my day.

On days when I spend just 30 minutes exercising I experience reduced stress and I always sleep better, always. Even a quick walk and fresh air helps if I’ve been busy all day. When the weather is nice, a nice walk or jog outside is my preferred method of exercise, but Nazareth also has a fully functional Fitness Center in the bottom of Shults that is equipped with everything you’ll need, and then some!

Why It All Matters

Many of the habits you form while you’re in college will be ones you carry for the rest of your life, so take some time to think about who you’d like to be in 10 years, and what you’d like to be doing. I find that keeping a journal provides me with a healthy opportunity for introspection, something I feel not everyone gets enough of in the era of social media. Nearly every building on campus has some lounges and empty spaces: I like to walk up to the top floor of  Peckham Hall sometimes to relax, read, and write in my journal. Maybe that’s not your thing, but your time is college is a great time to figure out what your thing is. Lucky for you, there are countless ways to pass Adulting 101.