1. Don’t be afraid to piss people off if you really believe in something.
2. Don’t play your ringtones in the cafeteria. No one wants to hear them and certainly no one will want to be your friend if you keep it up.
3. It’s okay not to be in a romantic relationship, especially freshman year. You also don’t need to be engaged by graduation. Marriage is a serious thing. Don’t just rush into it because you feel like you’re getting old and need to get married soon. It’s okay to be choosy, even if it means waiting until you’re 40.
4. Question everything your parents and church taught you growing up. Question everything your professors teach you. Question everything your friends try to convince you of. This is the only way to know what you truly believe.
5. You can miss 14 days of freshman biology (if you’re taking the MWF class). Use them to your advantage.
6. Don’t expect to stay friends with the same people all four years. It rarely happens. Hell, don’t expect to stay friends with the same people for one year. People leave. People change. People die. It’s a fact of life.
7. Learn to be creative in the cafeteria. The sandwich press thing can be used to grill just about anything on the salad bar. Use that to your advantage.
8. The Max is not a place to do your weave, so don’t. And if you choose to do so, don’t leave clumps of hair everywhere. It’s disgusting.
9. Jackson 3rd Left short hall has the best showers, but living on that hall will make you antisocial.
10. It is okay to doubt God. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
11. Learn to love yourself regardless of your shortcomings. You don’t need to point them out to yourself, there will always be people around to do that for you.
12. Ignore those people.
13. Community service is more rewarding than Convocation.
14. If you can’t find something in the library, Austina Jordan can. She’s magic.
15. You don’t get a free tshirt just by joining an intramural team. Don’t bother if that’s all you want. They’ll never stop emailing you about going to games.
16. If you want to learn what it means to love like Christ, watch Pastor Tracy. Take notes. He is the best example of what it means to “be Jesus to people” that I have ever seen.
17. Be ridiculously late for curfew once. Sneak out after curfew once. Slide down the quad after a hard rain once. Stay on campus for a break once.
18. Don’t go to the pool when the baseball team is practicing. Sure, they can’t hit balls like that when they actually play games, but they will knock a million into the pool when they practice.
19. If you’re doing laundry and someone has clothes in a dryer you need, take the clothes out and fold them. Don’t just throw them on the floor or on the table in a big pile. I used to do that until someone did it to me. It’s not fun to clean up and it wrinkles everything. Be a good neighbor.
20. Quad fishing is not a good way to meet your future spouse. Don’t do it. People will just make fun of you. Also, the “I just like to play, man.” excuse doesn’t work on anyone who’s been here for more than a year.
21. Make a tradition with your friends and do it as much as possible. Brittani and I started post-dinner, it evolved into what we have now as “family dinner.” It’s the best part of the day.
22. If you have an issue with someone, make sure they know it. Don’t just whisper about it or make thinly veiled statuses about it.
23. Make friends with people outside of your denomination/social circle. They won’t bite.
24. Clean up after yourselves. The cleaning lady is not your mother.
25. Don’t hold grudges. Don’t completely dismiss someone based on first impressions. You’ll kick yourself later when you realize that you really like the person and end up friends with them.
