Advice For College Freshman

It is basically a cluster of advice for 1st-year students that either I have read or heard.

Spend your time learning in college. Spend your time caring about something that truly interests you or tries to find something of your interest. Explore more of the roads less traveled. Enroll in unexpected courses. Read books of different genres. Ask dumb questions, shamelessly. Build projects you never thought of. Participate as much as you can. Travel to see more and more of the world through other peoples’ eyes — and with whatever you do, try to reach a new level.

Don't follow your passion, take your passion with you.

It doesn’t mean to abandon your passion, rather it means to do things other than your passion. YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT MIGHT BECOME YOUR PASSION, AS PASSION IS A FEELING, NOT A JOB. Do what Steve Jobs said: DO NOT SETTLE, KEEP LOOKING. Grab opportunities.

Never ever feel jealous of students who are in a relationship. Being single is best during the college years. Love yourself. If you really want to be in a relationship, choose him/her wisely who knows the meaning of a REAL relationship.

Earn money. Don't aim for a typical lifestyle: graduate by 22, then earn, have kids, join the 9–5 rat race. I'm not saying its bad, but you can achieve more than this. It's going to be hard to but worth trying. You will learn a lot during this journey. Try internships or a startup. Even if you don't earn much, you'll learn experience and lessons which will help in the future.

Read books, not only college syllabus books.

Make awesome friends, who are better than you. So, you improve.

Don't waste your money buying things just to show off. No one gives an about you. Not even god. Say no to costly phones, bags, watches. Use that money to invest in yourself like buy courses, books, travel.

Learn skills. Super important. Learn skills like coding, public speaking, dancing. Skills which you never tried to learn. The more skills you have the better. But learn skills which have great demand in the market. Have mastery in a lot of things. It will make you super creative and confident. Start with coding, if you have no interest in that then go writing, do something to keep you creative.

Improve your aptitude. Learn chess, sudoku, Rubik's cube. Train your mind to become smarter. It will train you to solve real-world problems and think outside the box.

As you will reach 2nd and 3rd year, most of your school friends won't be the same. Don't expect a lot from them. You will realize that the school-days were the best. There is nothing like school-days. Never feel sad while remembering school-days, just embrace and cherish them in your heart and soul. And so your college days will be gold. Enjoy them as much as you can.

The 1st year is comparatively easy. So bunk a lot and invest time in yourself. Do something great.

Have a 10-year plan. It will help a lot. Because if you have a plan, you know where you have to reach. Even if your goals change, make another plan. JUST WRITE IT DOWN ON A PIECE OF PAPER and analyze your actions. If you don't have any goals, then make some goals.

Join the gym. It's a good investment. If you don't have money, do calisthenics or do something like walking, jogging, swimming for 30 minutes daily. Just keep yourself active.

Participate in college activities. Do something that you have never done before like group discussion, debate. This will help you become FEARLESS.

Also, try to adopt Polyphase Sleep where one sleeps for Four hours and takes a power nap during noon or during college classes. This will be useful for students who have big dreams but less time, also you will get 2–3 hours extra. Now multiply this by next 1000days =3000hrs, this is the compound effect.

Always remember, your competition is with yourself. Your timeline is different than others. Don't be afraid of dreaming big. Dream a lot. And don't work your ass off, rather work smartly.

There would be people in your life who will not like you, who will never praise you, who will never appreciate your work. But you need to realize one thing, they are the ones who actually saw your potential and are scared of your actions. They will retaliate in their own ways, and you need to ignore them to nail in life, in the parallel universe. People will crush you to the core when they realize, one day, you can surpass them. You need to fight no matter what.

Live your days to the fullest and grow as a person.