Mom was right! 5 things I was warned about before college.

I love my mother as much as the next girl, but I still have a hard time admitting she was right. Going to college I felt like a hot shot, like nothing anyone told me would be any better than what I could figure out on my own.

So here are 5 things my mom said to me before I started college that I wish I took more seriously.

1. "You have to study differently, the teachers don't care if you pass their class."

Where as High School is ruled by the masters of memorization, College is ruled by those who understand.

Coming out of High School I fell back on old studying habits, when really I should have put away the flashcards and focused on the core question: Do I understand the material?

I use a whole system for studying. I combine flashcards, youtube videos, outlines, personal notes, summary, and sometimes I even pretend to teach the material I'm studying to another person.

I feel like I say this all the time on this blog but: FIND WHAT WORKS FOR YOU

2. "Everyone else is struggling too, it's normal"

College can be summed up very simply. 

"College is like riding a bike. Except the bike is on fire, you are on fire and suddenly someone douses you and everything you love in gasoline."

Okay, so maybe I made that up, but to be honest, there really is no way that I can think of to express the sure struggle that is college. You have thousands of other people around you, and sometimes they are putting years of work in just like you.

 Everyone has trouble keeping up with the course work, everyone needs to do laundry really bad, everyone is poor, everyone is hungry. It's not like High School anymore. In college people are more upfront with their struggles.

College to me so far has been 2 years of a frenzied free for all with no money and a ridiculous amount of work.

3. "It's okay to be homesick, everyone misses their parents."

I can totally remember how I felt smothered by the overwhelming presence that are my parents. Now I feel spoiled. Before I transferred to ASU to be close to home, I found myself consistently homesick, and always thinking about how my family was doing.

Being homesick is normal when you are away from home for a long period of time. Everyone experiences this whether they are a town away or thousands of miles away from home. 

One thing I would love to go back in time to tell myself is to absorb all that family time like a sponge. I miss it terribly now.

Coming home I have to study and do lots of work all the time. I always feel like I have work I should be doing now, and even thought I am now living at home it's still like being homesick.

4. "Eating well makes you feel like an adult and can save you money."

When I say eating well I don't just mean eating salads and fruit cups.

In college, you are surrounded by cheap, quick, and often horribly delicious unhealthy food. You hear myths about the Freshman 15 and they are true for a lot of people. It doesn't have to be.

When I was away from home at school, the first thing I thought when I would sit down with a plate of food is 'Would mom let me eat this for dinner?'.

Understanding that you are an adult and that you are entitled to make your own decisions is wonderful- understanding your mom has been an adult for a lot longer than you is even better. 

5. "Plan your day and break it into as many little chunks as possible. Use the planner I bought you"

To be honest, this is simple time management. I have learned to be diligent when using my planner and making plans with my friends. In high school you have your whole day planned down to the minute, while in college you are winging it.

In the words of my father:
"If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail."

Planners are the best thing in the world. I worship mine, and use it for classwork. Using a phone cake see scares me, because you could have a million things go wrong. Not saving an event, battery dying, a whole slew of accidental deleting issues. 

My advice: stick to what works. No paper calendar has ever let me down.

Have a funny college story? An idea for what I should write next? Comment below! I read every comment, even if it's criticism.