My Advice to All the Freshmen

"You'll never remember class time, but you'll remember the time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So stay out late. Go out with your friends on a Tuesday when you have a paper due on Wednesday. Spend money you don't have. Drink 'til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does...”  ~Tom Petty

Well it's that time of year again.  When college towns are flooded with students back for the semester.  And a lot of those students are wide-eyed, scared-to-death, map-carrying freshmen.  I sort of just want to grab all of them by the shoulders and be sure they understand--really understand--what a great chapter of their lives they are embarking on.  The house parties and football games and club meetings and nights at the Penny and the chance to meet so many great people......seriously, college was awesome.

And, so, in honor of the new school year, I have come up with a little advice to all of the freshmen.  Take it for what it's worth, but please do understand that I graduated at the top of my class with the best friends in the world and memories that are better than I can even put into words.  I'm just saying that I might know a bit about how to approach these next 4 years.

1.  Go to class.  Let me say it again.  GO TO CLASS.  Even if you are tired.  Or hung over.  Or still drunk.  I don't care if you don't have time to fix your hair, have to wear your pajamas, or lost your book a month ago.  Go.  to.  class.   Professors notice.  And in all likelihood you are going to pick up some sort of information that will be useful for the exam just by being in the room.  It is honestly hard to fail out if you will sit your butt in the seat.

2.  Buy the season football tickets.  I know that you're broke.  I get it.  I remember.  But I'm telling you, buy the football tickets.  You can pretty much find a free lunch every day of the week if  you pay attention to the different club meetings, so use that extra lunch money to buy them.  Find yourself some nice girls with a house who like to cook and they will feed you dinner at least once a week.  Maybe more.  More money to add to the football game pot.  You can make this happen.

3.  Find your people.   I'll preface this with saying I had some great friends in high school.  Really great ones.  But when you get to college, you have the chance to find your people.  You're don't just find your friends because you all live in the same zip code.  In college you have the chance to go out and find friends who are your people--the ones who share your interests and your beliefs and your values.  Or maybe ones who have completely different interests or beliefs or values, but who laugh at your jokes.  You'll know it when you find them because your life will become better.  You'll feel more like you--the real you--then you did before.  These are the people who will stand up next to you on your wedding day and whose kid's birthday parties you will travel three states to be at and with whom you'll lament turning 30 one day.  Choose wisely.

4.  And your place.  Every college kid has to find their place.  The one that makes them feel at home and happy and safe.  Maybe it's a coffee shop or a bar or a church or a study room in the library. Or house full of boys at 44th and Western that was probably never cleaned in the 2 years that they lived there, but that just felt right.  Wherever it is, find yours and go back there when things get stressful, or bad news comes, or you accidentally almost blow you house up, or you just need a chance to re-charge.  Find it.  And enjoy it.

Our couch named Snuggles

Church

The Penny

5.  Have fun.  I know that college can seem stressful and busy and crazy.  Yea...wait until the real world hits, kids.  This is the time of your life.  You don't want to come out of it with regrets.  Don't get me wrong, you have responsibilities--you have to go to class (remember Rule #1), you have to study, you have to go to work--but you also need to make time to have fun.  It's okay to close down the bar one night and go to teach little kid Sunday School the next morning (College Roomie and I were pros at that!)  Go out to dinner.  Put down the books on Thursday and go dancing.  Frequent IHOP at 2 in the morning.  The best things happen then and you don't want to miss them.

And so, little freshmen of the Class of 2017, welcome to the next chapter in your life.  When you're about to turn 30, you'll love looking back on the memories you are about to make.  So they better be good ones.  Live it up.