If you have stumbled upon our magazine and decided to start scanning it with your eyeballs (I think they call this reading?), you are already a more receptive student than I was.*

TOP: As I was saying, my freshman year was riddled with mistakes. For your sake, I have compiled advice based on every embarrassing failure that I experienced within Week One. Laugh at me or learn from me; that’s your prerogative.

1. Bring something to write with always. I didn’t bring a paper or a writing utensil to class on the first day. In my mind, colleges were technology hubs, so I assumed everything was digital, including first-day attendance sheets.

2. Try to look presentable on your first day of class. I wore various forms of athleisure — not the cute matching sets of today, but several oversized T-shirts that resembled nighties. Solid first impressions, Tess!

3. Find a buddy to eat lunch with before classes start. This will soothe your nerves, even though everyone is friendly and welcoming in the first few weeks of freshman year. If you were lucky enough to hit the ResLife jackpot and land in a boys’ dorm, then take this with a grain of salt. Most male dorms eat at designated tables in each dining hall.

4. Walk your schedule during Welcome Weekend. It’s a good idea to practice your daily walks from the dorm to class and back. By this point, you should not be surprised to learn I was frequently embarrassed by Siri’s voice guiding unknown routes. So embarrassing. Feel free to swing by my office (second floor Duncan Student Center) if you want some mediocre directions from this senior.

5. Give yourself grace. I felt insane pressure within the first week to socialize every day, join every club offered and have everything together. Putting yourself first is not selfish; it is a necessary investment in your well-being during one of the biggest changes in your life.

If you are now thinking, “Well, why would we listen to you?” after I essentially admitted that I don’t read, wear PJs to class and can’t use a map… your concern is valid. You should instead listen to parting wisdom from someone older, smarter and only half responsible for my genetic composition: my father. In his going-away letter to me, he wrote: “Don’t be afraid to fail. People who haven’t failed haven’t pushed themselves hard enough.”

Fail hard. Fail often. This is one of the only times in your lives when failure is not only expected, but encouraged. Even after all of my freshman year failure (and that was just Week One), I still came out okay. To my knowledge, I am not on a “do not publish” list, but I guess I will find out shortly.

Now, I’m going to stare at a map of campus and see if I remember my way around after being abroad last semester. Congratulations, and welcome home.

Enjoy our issue,

Tess Reinhart

*Note: It’s not that I have an aversion to reading — I was just overly confident my freshman year and never asked for advice. Fortunately, my frontal lobe has started to develop since then. Proceed to TOP.