An Open Letter

The biggest advice I can give academically is focus on loving your subject. If you tell yourself that God you hate this project or whatever, you will hate it. But also there is a lot of beautiful things about every subject, And if you enjoy it, it's not work at all and life feels better.

In order to help with this, you have to have a good foundation and not be overwhelmed – so go to every lecture and make sure you really UNDERSTAND what they're talking about, not just being able to do the homework with chatgpt and Google. Another benefit to this is you never have to cram for finals, because you already know the information. And the entire quarter is just 100 times easier and more enjoyable.

Take courses that scare you, you will be surprised with what you are actually capable of when push comes to shove. Go to office hours for free tutoring, And also just to see what professors you get along with. Some of them are really not that scary and are happy to just help you or talk to you. Plus this has the added benefit of someone who can help you with letter of recommendations later.

Outside of academics, I honestly think most things are great to struggle with and absolutely crash and burn. For me I always saw people partying, And so I forced myself to go to parties and make party friends, and while I do enjoy it, I also realized that's not exactly my cup of tea. If someone told me “oh don't worry about it parties aren't that fun!” I wouldn't believe it the same way as when I learn from my own experiences.

This applies to almost everything – Go ahead and get in a relationship that has more red flags than a China embassy, make stupid decisions stay up super late doing something questionable, and do super cringy things that when you look back on your face gets red. Not to scare you, but this is pretty much going to be some of the last years you can do this kind of stuff without much consequence. Enjoy that freedom.

Take care of your mental health as much as you can, if you can get therapy I absolutely stand by that, even if you don't think you need it to survive. Therapy really helps you grow and have a nice voice of reason consistently. But also something I really wish I knew way earlier was the advice that people always say and that is backed up by studies is surprisingly true. If you get enough sleep, get consistent exercise, social interaction, and eat well(ish) you will mentally feel better, I started going to the gym 6 days a week for a little bit over a year now, and that has given me so many more benefits than I could have ever imagined. I would really recommend try to get into that habit and stick to it for 21 days without slipping up at all.

But I think most of all, be excited for it. Don't be excited for anything specific, like don't be delusional and think oh I'm going to finally have a super hot girlfriend or whatever; but be excited that you are going to grow and experience things like you never have before. Every single year in college I became a completely different person, and every year I think it was for the better. Get ready for a whole lot of shit in 4 years that will eventually feel like it went by in a blink!