Relax

Ever since your summer vacation ended late July, you’ve been running around like a spider monkey with his tail ablaze. You’ve never been away from home before, and you have no idea what to expect or how to prepare. Questions sprint through your head amidst the endless shopping, your mother’s emotional breakdowns, and dozens of e-mails and snail mail you receive from the college of your choice. Will I fit in? What if I can’t find my classes? Did I really choose the right school? You wake up shaking after dreaming that your roommate is a seven foot body-builder, and no matter how much you want to esc ape the increasingly irritating grasp of your family, you can’t deny that you’re, maybe, the teeniest, tiniest bit terrified.

Relax. Millions of adolescents have gone to school before you, and everyone in the class of 2012 is facing the same questions, the same nervous breakdowns, the same nightmares. If you want to ensure that your transition into college goes as smoothly as possible, you need to recognize the need to calm down so that you can think clearly about your future endeavors.

Don’t Listen to All Advice

The summer before college starts, everyone will share their advice, and the advice can be overwhelming and contradictory. “Bring duct tape. You’ll need fifty pairs of socks, and a sewing kit. Don’t underpack. Don’t overpack. If you don’t make friends the first week, you won’t have friends in college. Don’t skip classes. Don’t trust the dorm food. The mattresses will be uncomfortable, so bring your own.” Everyone had different experiences in college, and just because a piece of advice worked for them doesn’t mean it will necessarily work for you. Instead, go with your gut feeling. If a piece of advice in this article doesn’t suit you, then ignore it. If you try to follow every piece of advice each aunt, hairdresser, or second uncle three-times removed gives you, you’ll experience a frantic transition into the school year.

Realize That It’s Okay to Pack Lightly

When you’re packing for college, don’t stress because you’re worried you might forget an object. Your dorm room won’t cave in just because you forgot those purple high-heels or your favorite summer outfit. If worse comes to worse, you can always have items shipped to your room, and colleges often have convenience stores that you can easily pick up every-day items such as toothbrushes, power drinks, and socks.

Find a Way to Keep in Touch with Your High School Friends

Your best friend is going to a college seven hundred miles away from your own, and you wonder if you’ll ever see her again. In order to keep relations with your old buddies, plan an outing ahead of time. Promise that you’ll take her to the mall the second day of winter break or that you’ll call her every weekend. You’ll have enough to worry about in college than to agonize over the severing of old ties.

Sleep

Now that it’s nearing the end of summer, try to acquire a regular sleeping pattern. Go to bed at ten, and don’t sleep in until three in the afternoon. When in a stressful situation, it’s necessary to ensure that your body gets plenty of rest.

Exercise

Like sleep, exercise is necessary for your health. Dust off your bike and take a trip to the nearest bike trail. If you go to a large university, you’ll probably need to maneuver a fair distance between classes, so it’s a good idea to get into shape now rather than wait until later. Exercise will also help you control your stress level.

Network with People from your College on Facebook

Now that fall 2008 is nearing, there are several groups on Facebook that allow you to network with people from your university, dorm, or major. If you speak to people facing a similar path, it will help your worries subside. You might even be able to make friends before you step foot on campus.

Plan a Few Days for Yourself

If you have a summer job, try to end it a couple days before you start your college experience. Don’t flood your last days with appointments or social dates with your friends. Save a couple days that are completely free so that you’ll have an opportunity to pack and pull yourself together physically, mentally, and emotionally. When you start that first class at 8:00 AM, you want to be at your optimal level.

Choose a Couple Personal Items to Bring With You

In the haywire of packing sewing kits, socks, underwear, batteries, duck tape, a TV set, and laptop, you’ll feel your stress level rise faster than a beachball underwater. Staring at those twenty-five boxes packed full of your junk, you may wonder how all your stuff will fit inside a dorm room that’s smaller than a Guatemala prison cell. Ensure that your packing doesn’t turn you into an item-toting robot. Instead, save some room for a couple personal items. That sunset picture you took three summers back, or those shells you always kept in the front drawer of your desk. As you’re leaving everything behind, you might as well bring some remnants of the past, and it will make packing a more positive experience.

Visit College Forums

As you’re networking on facebook, you may find that some forums might be useful to answer some of your questions and pull you back into reality. Visit forums such as Go College Forums or College Confidential. You’ll find that you’re not the only one facing difficulties as you depart into a whole new world.