My Back To School Advice

By Zachary Simonson on August 29, 2016

Don’t get schooled going back to school. Yeah, it’s that time of year again, that time when our parents cry about losing their babies, when we get to go back to that wonderful and terrifying place called college.

To make it a little less terrifying, here’s my back to school advice.

There’s a lot of advice you’re going to hear over and over. Keep your door open, meet new people, try new things, try out different clubs, stuff like that. You should listen to it.

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I spent my first couple weeks with my door shut, and it kind of sucked. Opening my door led me to interact with others. Surprisingly enough, there’s a group for everyone at college. In high-school I never would have met a group of people who wanted to play Munchkin until 2 a.m. or watch My Little Pony (yes, I like My Little Pony) while playing card games. But I never would have met them with my door closed.

They talk a lot about how college is a place for new ideas and opinions. I agree, but colleges tend to be very liberal places. I’m pretty liberal, so it doesn’t affect me too much, but if you’re a conservative (like one of the two conservatives I met last year) it’s going to be tough. You might want to learn to be careful of what you say. Trust me, if you’re not a strong willed person you’re not going to want to be the one conservative voice.

And make sure to look online at RateMyProfessor (or any site similar to it) to see if the teacher is safe to disagree with. Some aren’t.

RateMyProfessor is actually a god-send. You want to know as much as you can before your classes start. I had one teacher who I loved that was very bad at giving lectures. It was hard for most people to follow her advice. If I had looked her up, I might have gone with a different teacher. I’m glad I didn’t, since I did okay and she was a fun teacher, but it still would have been good to look it up beforehand.

Be careful about partying. I have a few friends who ended up in very bad situations because they weren’t used to college parties. Believe me, it’s not fun to be in those situations, and a lot of guys (and some girls) come to parties looking to hookup with drunk people. Trust me.

Lastly, get used to LGBTQA people. I know some people are against that, and I respect your right to have that opinion, but college is the time when people get to explore their sexuality. If they’re from a strict family, this might be the first time they get to experience any kind of sexual freedom. It might be the first time they say that they’re trans.

I’m not saying you have to change your opinion, you don’t, but I am asking you to respect that this is the first time most of us really get to be gay, and we might get a little annoying about it, but that’s because we can finally embrace it. Live and let live.

I know it can be hard when you meet someone with pronouns you’ve never heard before or with a sexuality you’ve never heard of before, but it can’t hurt to try to understand them. Some people use “They, Them, Their” instead of “She, Her, Hers,” and I admit it’s hard to get used to, but they’ve heard your objections before.

Again, I’m not saying you can’t disagree, but just try to understand how they might feel.

In the end, college is a pretty great place, and I can’t wait to go back. Just don’t get caught up in your new freedom, and don’t cut off ties with your old family and friends.

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