Like every other “well-adjusted person,” to borrow the late David Foster Wallace’s words, I find that I begin each year with resolutions that will be kept incompletely, if at all.
Perhaps this can be different.
The freshman experience you are about to begin will be one that challenges you to grow both personally and intellectually, and without dispensing didactic advice that you won’t care to remember past reading today’s paper, I want to share with you a few thoughts I now wish someone might have shared with me.
You do not always have to be above reproach.
Keep in mind that no one is perfect in dealing with both friends and yourself this year. It is well within your rights to mess up every once in a while, but take care not to head out with reckless abandon.
Involving yourself on campus is one of the best ways to make new friends and begin establishing your network of support, but taking on too much too quickly can overwhelm you. Remember you have to find time to go to school.
Keep some center.
Stay involved in causes you care about and find people of similar values to surround yourself with. Keep involved in a church, or take the chance to find a new place to grow and have a little peace.
Find yourself. Slowly.
You do not need to attempt to live years in the measure of a few short months. Reach out.
Take some time to give back to community organizations, friends, and family and feel good about it.
Ask for help when you need it.
It is okay to need a little help adjusting. Seek out help from peers, advisors, and campus resources to keep on track. Handle concerning classes upfront with your graduate assistants and professors in order to work things out sooner rather than later.
Try new things.
Without making long term commitments, you will have the chances to like what you encounter or move along.
Embrace change.
Take the time and space you may need to adjust accordingly and know that college, above all, is a time to grow.
I would be doing you a disservice to fail to mention some more concrete advice, but you hardly would have read this far had I begun there.
Go to class.
Read your syllabi and understand the attendance practices of all of your individual professors. Life happens — when you get (really) sick or have another legitimate issue, talk it out and chances are everything will work out.
Participate in your education.
You do not have to speak in every class, but be more than a warm body in the room, if only for your own benefit. Keep pace.
Be careful to check Blackboard and your school email every day to keep on track with deadlines.
Be careful with money.
Register your Ole Miss ID online with ManageMyID at olemiss.managemyid.com if you have not already to allow your parents to reload your Express and Flex accounts as necessary. Some off-campus businesses will even accept Express as a method of payment.
Try to take the opportunity to rise to the occasion of managing your own money as best you can — funds can dwindle fast when you are not keeping track of how much you spend.
I hope that having come to the end of this you will feel better prepared to go forward and do well. We pride ourselves in the “Experience Amazing” at The University of Mississippi because that is exactly what this can be. Take care and be ready, you have all the tools you honestly need.
