by Jennifer Jacquet

Created on: January 10, 2009   Last Updated: November 09, 2009

It's true, you know. Your college years really will be the best years of your life. See, college is not really about school. Of course, that's the primary reason that you're there, and there are a certain number of classes that you have to attend and finals that you have to take, but that's not what college is. Even the classes in college are totally unlike any other classes you will ever take. They have names like "Moving to Personhood" and you're allowed to wear your pajamas.

In college, your food pyramid gets redrawn. There are five main food groups: care packages, cold pizza, Chinese food, ramen noodles, and caffeine. Depending on the quality of the food served in the school cafeteria (as well, of course, as the size of your budget), a sixth category may be added: cafeteria food. Believe me when I tell you that no cafeteria has tasty enough food to make you divide it into the traditional groups. It's all just cafeteria food, and it helps to balance out all of the carbs, grease, and sodium from the other five groups. If you want to do yourself a favor in college, take the stairs whenever you can.

There are two things you should know about when it comes to living on campus: neighbors and roommates. First of all, roommates. It's very rare for your roommate to be a perfect match, and far more likely that you two will just be able to tolerate one another. Of course, I had a friend who went through two roommates in our freshman year; both were literally psychotic and both ended up leaving. But that kind of thing is really pretty rare. It's far more likely that your biggest concerns will be whether or not your roommate stole your granola bars, or whether or not to have music on while you're studying. My advice would be to spend some time getting to know one another on the first day. Find out about sleeping habits, pet peeves, and boundaries.

Of course, even if your roommate is actually your soulmate, you're not the only ones in the building, or even on the floor. Sometimes, neighbors will listen to loud music all night, or will come in to borrow your broom (without asking), or just want to hang out and talk. This, unfortunately, is a fact of life, and there's nothing that you can really do about it. Unless, of course, you retaliate. I wish I could tell you about some of the pranks I have witnessed (and played), but that will have to wait for another article.

A word must be said here about freshman relationships. Half of your class will be dating someone, sleeping with someone, or "talking to" someone. At least, they will be until Christmas break. By the time that spring semester begins, half of those couples will no longer be talking. If you go to a Christian college, then the couples who are still talking to one another will be engaged before spring finals; Christian colleges come with an unofficial guarantee: ring by spring or your money back. All of this is to say that you shouldn't worry if you don't have someone special in your first year of college. And, if you do have someone special, don't settle too quickly. Chances are, this person is not "the one." Take your time. Get to know one another. Take it slow. If it's right, then taking it slow won't hurt anything.

In closing, I want to tell you something about midterms. 99.99% of the time, midterms are not a big deal. Yes, it's an exam or project or paper, but it's really no different from any other exam or project or paper that you will do in that semester, except that it comes in the middle of the semester, and then you get your progress report. So don't stress too much over the midterms. They're not as scary as they sound.

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