More survival tips for freshmen

The other day, I advised today’s college freshmen to be self-sufficient as much as possible, earn their parents’ trust (so that their parents don’t end up getting overly strict with them) and – if they can help it – try not to be so much of a financial burden to their family. Below are a few more pieces of advice on how to get by in their academic life.

Avoid distractions. I don’t know how students are able to concentrate on their studies today – what with all sorts of distractions around them: cell phones, cable TV, VCD, DVD, Internet, playstations and "gimmicks" at Megamall, Rockwell and Eastwood.

During my time (no, this wasn’t before the war), we only had the telephone, the TV set, Betamax (in its very early stage), Atari and weekend trips to either Quad or Ali Mall.

The use of the telephone that time was still controllable because I had to compete with my other siblings who sometimes hogged the phone till midnight. Then, we also had to give equal time to this now thing of the past called party line.

The once a week (or even less) journeys to Quad and Ali Mall were really harmless diversions that didn’t take too much of our time. To begin with, there really wasn’t much to do in Quad, except watch a movie and eat at the Magnolia House. There was even less to do in Ali Mall because it had always been small.

The more serious threats to our studies were Betamax and Atari games because these sometimes kept us up late at night. But the biggest distraction then was the TV set. Never mind if there were only five commercial networks that time.

How did we focus on our studies given all those distractions? Will power. It wasn’t easy. And I bet the situation is even tougher for our students today. I guess a more realistic approach to this is to set a particular schedule for studies and a few hours for diversions. But no matter what happens, always prioritize your studies and school projects.

Never resort to shortcuts. A lot of people in this world manage to graduate by taking the easy way out. They cheat (by copying from classmates or using what students always refer to as a codigo) or charm their professors. But believe me, these people pay for these shortcuts in the end.

When I was in second grade, I was very sickly and contracted all the childhood diseases: fever, diarrhea, mumps almost every month (I’m telling you, it can hit you more than once in your lifetime), measles and chicken pox. I missed two periodical exams in the process and was only able to attend seven months of that school year. Somehow, I still got 80s in my report card (although my class standing was low), except in Arithmetic. When I missed the final exams because of the chicken pox, my Mom showed up in school with a big bag of pastillas for my teacher. The following day, it was my Dad’s turn to come to school – this time with a long box of Brazo de Mercedes.

They surely charmed my teacher with those little presents and I passed that school year. Never mind if I got out of second grade without mastering my addition and substraction. But I paid for this dearly (actually, I am still paying for it) because without knowing the proper foundation for arithmetic, I had extreme difficulty dealing with higher mathematics – except for statistics, mercifully.

But really, try to absorb everything they teach you in school. And there are really no useless subjects (only useless professors – sometimes). What you think now as useless subjects may come in handy once you are in the professional world.

Stay healthy. Students often lack sleep because they have to spend long nights studying and working on school projects. To make up for lack of sleep, maybe you should try eating well. Unless you are really obese, don’t even think of dieting yet. You’ll lose your baby fat once you reach your 20s, anyway. For the guys, especially, eat big meals (but the right food, please) because you are still adding up to your height.

Don’t take romance seriously yet. As much as possible, try not to fall in love until you are in your junior year. The first two years of college is punishing to the schedule of any student because most of them are still taking up basic subjects (including P.E.) and are still on a full load. If you’re taking up Bachelor of Arts, it gets easier because you go into your major and you no longer have to plough through memorization of formulae – unless you are majoring political science and you have to memorize page after page of your books.

However, I won’t ply much into this issue because romance is a very personal thing and there really is no time and age for love. But try to defer romance for later if you can so that you’d be able to concentrate full on your studies.

Join extra-curricular activities. Join any club or organization in school so that you may develop your personality. Yes, this will better prepare you for your life ahead as a professional. Even away from your books, you are bound to learn a lot in these extra-curricular activities. (But don’t join too many.)

Joining extra-curricular activities will also add fun to your life as a student, which you may as well savor. You see, I’m not trying to scare you. But life isn’t necessarily going to get any easier once you graduate and get on into the corporate world. So good luck to all of you and please go back to your books after reading this.