10 (Real) Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before Starting College

1. You have ADHD so some of this is going to really suck.

Ha. No, but really. 

ADHD is super underdiagnosed in girls, despite being just as present. I wasn't the best at school. Despite being in the gifted programs and my senior year English teacher asking me "What do you mean you don't take any medication?" it never really surfaced that my school-related issues were rooted in a cognitive learning disorder. I wish it had. Getting a diagnosis and helpful medication was the best thing that truly ever happened to my education.

2. Sometimes you'll have to sit alone in the lunch hall & it doesn't mean there's something wrong with you.

My freshman year of college was great because I actually had the opportunity to experience it with my best friend of 18 (now 23) years. When she left, I realized that I was really bad at making friends in college.

Everyone is so busy, and their friend groups are pretty much already established. You have to learn to enjoy your own company. Air-dropping pictures of Kermit the Frog to anyone nearby is a great exercise in people-watching, though.

3. Your English professors don't hate you and you need to learn to take constructive criticism. 

 Look, when I graduated from Peaster High School USA I thought I was the next Jane Austin. [Insert something about humility here.] I never received any negative review or feedback on any piece of writing I had ever submitted. Ever. I was known throughout the school as "the writer" and it went straight to my head.

I learned very quickly upon entering college that I had been a big fish in a little pond. A very little pond. Graduating class of 74 to be exact.

See, college professors actually have the tools to better you. And if you're anything like me, every criticism you receive is something you take very personally. I couldn't help it. I felt like I was being stripped of my dignity and dreams in my first college composition class.

It's not personal. Learn. Stop wasting time crying in your car.

4. You can steal from the salad bar if you make friends with the cafeteria workers.

It pays to have connections. Okay? Be nice to everyone. Those little chunks of ham go really well in your 45-cent package of ramen. 

5. Do not waste your money renting textbooks.

When you calculate the difference between what it costs to rent a textbook and what it costs to purchase it, it's usually the amount that you will get paid to sell the textbook back to the bookstore at the end of the semester. The only real difference for renting a book is the astronomical fine you will pay when you forget that you rented it 5 months prior. Just get the ebook if you can. They are cheaper and faster to navigate, and you won't have friends asking to borrow them without returning them to you.

6. Do not go alone to dorm rooms with your lab partners that you haven't met before.

You're just going to have to trust me on this. Everyone can meet in a public coffee shop with Wi-Fi to work on a PowerPoint.

7. Take your meds and actually use the planners you keep buying.

If buying 30 different colored markers and highlighters is what motivates you to organize your time and get those assignments turned in, just do it. It's a small investment for beneficial results. 

For some reason buying any form of school supplies resets my cognitive disfunction and I become Rory Gilmore. 

8. Tell your mom every assignment you have due.

You won't rest. She will be relentless. She will call you at 10 p.m. on a Friday night while you're at that tailgate and chew you out because she knows you haven't finished that group response that counts for 10% of your grade... but you will thank her later.

9. You will not get up early enough in the morning to get gas AND make it to class on time.

This does not require an explanation. 

10. Just because you didn't have a fast-track plan to finish college in four years does not make you a failure.

I'm a first-gen college student. My parents didn't even know what duel-credit was when I was in high school. Stop looking at other people's experiences and privileges and thinking you aren't as successful because your journey doesn't look like theirs. College is hard. It's expensive. Everyone is operating with different situations and privledges. It might take you 6 years. Life happens and that's okay. Stop beating yourself up and just focus on the effort you're putting in. 

Breathe in. Breathe out. You're gonna be okay.