Going To College? Do Your Home Work Before You Go!
Posted: Monday, July 24, 2006
by Deborah Coss
Senior Helpers Ventura
There are many things to think about, plan and study before you leave home for the new campus. No matter if you were a "Big Fish," in a little pond, or a wall-flower during your high school career. College is altogether different from what you have learned up till now. Scholastically, you may be prepared... But what about:
Your Support Group - Do you have all the names and phone numbers you will need to pack and take along with you? I suggest getting a Bon Voyage Journal, and letting everyone you care to stay in touch with, the opportunity to write something personal for you, in your Bon Voyage, and putting there name, address, phone numbers, and email address at the bottom of their notes to you. If you use a three ring binder, you can add transparency pages, to include some photos and such, for an even more personalized journal. It may comfort and help you when you are homesick, and you will have a list of your most current and important support people in one book. You can add pages, or use the rest of a hardbound journal to explore all the new feelings you will be having as you transition to your new life. Writing about feelings and talking about them, will help you to identify your strengths, your fears, homesickness and any of the changes you are going through. It might be helpful when you have to consult with counselors or professionals, on and off campus, to do this extra bit of homework.
Are you prepared to meet and deal with lots of strangers? What about differences of opinions and living styles in close quarters, and sharing small spaces with people you have yet to meet. It's important to realize that you can learn from differences rather than trying to overcome them. Acceptance and flexibility are two great survival skills. When faced with troubling situations, realize that there are people, places and things you simply can not change, over which you have no power. Develop a sense of humor and learn to laugh and have fun. If you are really having a hard time, and are troubled by your thoughts, there is a technique called switching thoughts. Just like a train, traveling on a track, we sometimes get stuck on thoughts that can do us no good. Someone (you!), needs to throw the switch and changes tracks and the destination of a train. Simply put, I personally used a mantra when I was in basic training in the U.S. Army, so when things got to me, I simply told the bad thoughts to go away, and replaced my negative thoughts with a positive thought. It was a matter of training my thoughts, as well as my body, to succeed in basic training. Remember that fear, its self, is not always a bad thing, as discussed in the book, the Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence by Gavin De Becker. It's a good read and good advice as you venture further out into the world. Plug in, suit up and show up - Plug into all the possible services you can for new students. Many of us, forget or chose to not ask for help. Especially when we are not feeling well about the way things are going.
Get names and phone numbers of people you are meeting, practice picking up the phone just to say hi. Build bridges as soon as you get to your new campus. If you start opening doors when you get there, if things get hard, you will already have practiced in talking to people who are sharing the path of higher education with you. Suiting up and showing up, is practice for the rest of your successful life. The day you decide you do not need to be in class, is the day, you will miss hearing what you needed to hear to succeed in class. And so it will be, for the rest of your life. If you want to "stay in the loop," you need to be the one to be active enough to be kept in.
Take good care of your self, your body, and your health. You are going to be in close quarters with a lot of people, and if you are partying, not taking vitamins or meds, you usually take, and working too hard, without enough sleep, you will wear yourself down and possibly get ill. Remember to wash your hands often and pack some antibacterial hand cleaner for the computer labs, and class rooms. A lot of illness is passed via hand-to-hand contact. Pack first aid kit of your own with some aspirin, Pamprin, bandages, antibacterial first aide cream, ace wraps, portable ice and heat packs, and anything else you usually keep in the medicine cabinet at home... Find out where the health service providers are on your campus, including counselors, and get plugged in early. Find out about health insurance offered by your campus. Newspapers, the Internet, and other publications, are filled with stories about people who fail to use caution on campus. Think ahead, plan ahead, and use the buddy system. When you are going to go someplace new, do something new, chose a buddy, and go together. There is safety in numbers. Be aware of the "In case of Emergency (ICE)" campaign. Store the word " I C E " in your mobile phone address book, and enter the number of the person you would want to be contacted "In Case of Emergency". In emergency situations, ambulance and hospital staff will be able to find out who your next of kin or emergency contacts are, and be able to contact them. It really could save your life. For more than one contact name ICE1, ICE2, ICE3 etc. This should not replace emergency contact wallet cards, but used in addition to them, and any medical alerts you should be wearing or using.
Find all the resources you may need to use before you go... You may want to use MapQuest.com, or any other mapping/directions service, to locate your new housing, and your favorite book store, coffee shop, markets, clothing store, pharmacy, religious or spiritual groups or facilities, sports facilities, movie houses, theater, or anything else of interest to you. When you get there, simply locate the directions to your point of interest, and you are ready to go, without having to ask directions for each new venture. You can map out your campus ahead of time also.
All these time savers, will take a lot of pressure from you, when trying to navigate around your new "home away from home." Pre-address some envelopes with your name and new address, and leave them with people who promise to write to you. The really clever friends and family will try to use those envelopes quickly, so that mail will already be waiting for you at your new digs, making your new home a little more welcoming.
Self Esteem - There is a really simple formula for obtaining and maintaining good self-esteem. If you want good self esteem - do esteemable acts. This is just one more block of character being built to part of the foundation, of who you are and who you will be. Take care. Remember the destination is not near as important as the journey!
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