 Hello, hello, it is your boy, Ding Che, coming back at you guys. I am finally back on campus, getting ready for the next part of the semester. Midterms was before fall break, but now I'm getting back into the routine of things. If you're new to the channel, welcome. I make videos about college, fashion, lifestyle, photography, and film. So if that sounds interesting, make sure you guys hit that subscribe button for more videos. But today's a video I've been wanting to make for a while now, and it's essentially the things that I wish I knew before my freshman year. It's crazy to believe that I'm already a sophomore and that the past year has flown by, but there are a lot of things that I wish I had known before I got into school that really would have just made the transition a lot easier and helped me adjust a lot faster. So that's what I'm going to be helping you guys out today. Let's hear the intro. First and most importantly, if there's anything you take away from this video, it's that you have to realize that when you get to college, you are not shit. It's going to be a rude, rude awakening if you come to college thinking that you're the top dog because you were a varsity athlete in high school or you're a valedictorian and now you get to come to whatever college campus you're at and you get to run the school. Buddy, that's not how it works. Like let me put it to you straight that you really have to learn how to humble yourself and that if you don't, college will teach you that real quickly. Regardless of whatever school you're at, no one cares that you are a valedictorian because especially at school like Princeton, trust me, there are at least maybe 20 other kids who are valedictorians from their high school that come here. If you're a varsity athlete, okay, there are multiple teams of varsity athletes from their high school. If you were some kind of quiz bowl champion or a debate national debater or whatever, like trust me, like no one really cares. And when you get to college, you realize that all your high school accomplishments, not that they weren't meaningful or that they didn't mean anything, but it's honestly like so insignificant. Like the things that you did in high school were cool and that you should keep to yourself. They're not really great conversation starters or things that you want to be bringing up like all the time. Like please, please, please never beat that kid at the dinner table that goes, oh yeah, back in high school, I did this or yeah, I remember my senior year of high school. I was this, I was prom queen and prom queen or whatever. Like you're quickly going to turn into that kid that never learned how to get out of high school and is still reminiscing about those days. So something that I learned very quickly was despite all the accomplishments I had in high school, coming to college, you realize, okay, what I did was cool, but there are hundreds of other kids who did the same thing as me or even cooler. So going around and like bragging about all your high school accomplishments or your awards or your trophies, like please, please, please do not do that. And trust me, it's going to make your college life just a lot easier and people are going to like you a lot better. Okay, number two, I've mentioned this so many of my videos, but you will have to learn how to manage your time. This is critical for you to not procrastinate, not fall behind in your classes and most importantly to enjoy your college experience so that you thrive instead of just struggle to get by every day. In high school, it might have been cute to be a procrastinator and do things the last minute, but in college it is so immature and like people look down on people who wait till the last minute to get their problem set or get ready for the test. Like people are like, what are you doing dude? Like you should be studying, you should be actually doing your work. And that's a good thing to have because you want people around you that are going to push you and cultivate you to become a better human being. And one big aspect of that is learn how to manage your time. Like if you haven't done so already, get a planner, write down your schedule for the week and get your shit done. Like get it out of the way ahead of time so that you don't have that pressing in the back of your mind that, oh crap, I have an essay to be written. Oh crap, I have to study for this test. Like do yourself a favor and just get ahead of that already. Number three, this is a lesson that I learned further on throughout the year and it's something that I wish I had known earlier, but it's that you don't always have to go out. Regardless of what your friends are saying or what your friend group is doing that weekend, like going out on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday night, like three nights in a row, that is a toll on your body and that's something that you should be doing every week, especially if you want to stay mentally and physically healthy for your classes and so that you can balance your extracurricular, still hang out and just grab dinner. Instead of just going out to the clubs or whatever you guys do at your school, staying up really late and then having to wake up really early for your classes, like that's not good to be doing continuously every weekend. I know people have FOMO, especially me, I hate being feeling like I'm left out, but if you realize that you don't always have to go out and you can do things with your friends in your dorm room, like just watching a movie and hanging out, you're just going to make your college experience a lot easier and not feel that pressure of always having to do something active and like be out on the weekends. Number four is you have to learn how to utilize your school's resources. At a school like Princeton, obviously there are dozens of resources offered, whether it's for tutoring or individual help or office hours or helping find internships or employment or connections or whatever the case is. Like look into what opportunities your school has to offer and seize them because at the end of the day, you're paying God knows what amount of money for your tuition that you might as well get the best bang for your buck, like utilize what that school has to offer. And honestly, the majority of my experiences I've had at Princeton, whether it's traveling or getting funding to get new equipment, like I'm filming on right now, like all I had to do was find the right people and ask and find a way to integrate it with my studies and what I'm pursuing at school so that they have some kind of reason that they're able to fund it. So that's a huge thing, like utilize your school's resources because they're going to be a huge helpful benefit for you to expand whatever you're trying to do. Number five, freshman year can be a beating. I know it's hard acclimating to this new environment where you feel like you don't have a friend group, you feel like you're homesick, you feel like the classes are super hard and that's why it's okay to not be okay. Like if you acknowledge and embrace the fact that you're not okay, you're going through something and you reach out to the right people and you talk about it and you find ways to cope with that, that's going to lead to you just being a better and healthier person because you have the self-awareness that you know that something's wrong with you and that you're seeking help, you're doing something about it. If you just let that boil up and fester inside of you, it's negative energy, negative mojo that you don't want impacting your academic or your social life at school. I personally know that at times it gets hard, it gets difficult, and it feels like the whole world's just collapsing down on you and you don't know what to do. A sophomore year, just looking back on my previous year, I realized I should have done a better job of expressing my struggles and figuring out how I can cope with that and talking to someone. And since I've been through that, that's a huge tip that I wish I would have known before going into my freshman year. Number six, this is huge. Going to whatever school you're at, it is easy to feel like you're always comparing yourself to the person next to you who's doing better on your test or the person in the orchestra who plays way better than you or the athlete or whatever the case may be. Please, please, please do not compare yourself because especially at a big college campus, it's easy to get overwhelmed and it's easy to let that fear or negativity impact your current state of mind, you know? Comparison is a thief of all joy and if you constantly think about this person's better than me or I'm not doing as well as this person, that's a lot of time and energy wasted thinking about how you're comparing yourself to someone else, rather than thinking about how I can take that time and energy, invest it in myself and grow out of that and eventually become better than whoever you're comparing yourself to. Like, don't waste time dwelling on things that you can change and focus on yourself because at the end of the day, that's the most important thing. Number seven is keep your home a home. Now, this is kind of a tricky one to understand, but essentially when I left for college, I packed up everything I had in my room, all my clothes, all the things that I thought I would need, you know, my toiletries, everything. I basically packed up, brought over in a bunch of boxes and duffel bags and now being in my sophomore year, I realized I have so much clutter and things that I don't need and things that I should have just left at home because the worst feeling is you go home for break, you open up your closet and there's nothing there. You only have the clothes that you brought with you from school. So having a closet at home that you can just come to for breaks and have all the things that you need and keeping your bedroom, essentially your bedroom and making your dorm room at school, your dorm room at school, right? What I mean by that is when you move into your dorm room, don't try and redo your bedroom at home in your college dorm room, make this into a different kind of space. So even being in my dorm room right now, this is way cozier than my bedroom at home because I have furniture, I have a huge TV, I have decorations and I feel more at home now what I'm here than I'm in my bedroom at home because I moved everything out. I know that's a long spiel but I hope you understand what I'm saying and let's move on to the next one. Number eight is super critical on something that I'm constantly working on and improving on and it's essentially taking time for yourself. College is busy and there are dozens of things going on at any time of the day and you constantly feel like you have to be doing something or going to this event or going to dinner with someone but in reality it's perfectly healthy and should be the norm to take time for yourself like devote a couple hours a week to just take time for yourself reflect and do the things that you want to do whether it's just binge watching Netflix, going on YouTube, watching your favorite YouTuber, going for a walk to clear your head, reading a book, it's super easy to get caught up in college and with your academic workload to think that you always have to be working, always have to be doing something and keeping yourself busy and that's good to a certain extent if you don't take the time to decompress and really focus on making yourself a better person like you're eventually gonna burn out and burning out is not what you want to be doing especially your first year of college so please take my advice and just take some time for yourself because it's gonna be super worth it at the end of the day okay that wraps it up for this video I hope you guys enjoyed my eight things that I wish I knew before coming into my freshman year like I said, freshman year is a difficult time because you're transitioning to this whole new part of your life and it's a big step and it's a big monumental milestone for you because at this point in your life going like being a freshman in high school or being a sixth grader like those aren't huge steps in your eventual lifetime career but anyways if you enjoyed this make sure you guys leave a comment down below I do appreciate the support subscribe for more videos and I will see you guys next time