An Open Letter to First-Year University Students

I was going through my archived files to find something to post (I found the theme song I wrote for myself- if you filled my ego with helium, you would solve many people's petty grievance). Here's something I did think was kind of cool:

An Open Letter to First-Year University Students

As I am writing letters to everyone who is going to my 21^st, I thought I would also write a letter to you- the people I am most excited to meet because you are going to be starting university for the first time and I know nothing about you. Having finished my B.A. and having been accepted into an Honour's programme, I feel like I know a little about the university experience, but let's bear in mind that I'm only speaking on behalf of myself, and I hope that this helps you in some way.

Let us begin- you are about to embark on an awesome and hectic adventure, and no matter what you're studying, you are likely about to realize that you've come from the small streams into a rather large ocean. You probably have come from high school or a gap year¹, and we welcome you with open arms to the final phase of your formal education. You will now be fully-responsible for your education- you will choose any and all papers of which to be enrolled in, and should you not want to go to class, that is your perogative. However, it's a huge mistake not to go to class because that is one of the reasons you are here. You will have most likely been told early and often that what you get out of school is what you put into it- now, more than ever, heed this advice. Going to class, completing assignments, and sitting tests and exams, will be profitable not just fiscally (because university, unlike high school, is not free and the majority paid for by public funding), but be more rewarding if you are learning in your chosen field.

However, academia is not the only reason you are here. You are now at a point in your life where you can meet people from all avenues of life, experiment and experience new facets of the world including new cultures and new walks of life. Make friends- that is my biggest piece of advice. Even if you're a shy person, learn to be able to introduce yourself to a total stranger in a classroom or campus, and connect with them on a level in which they will want to be your friend. You may have some friends follow you from high school, but they do not have to be your only friends, and I would argue that it extremely helpful to know people in classes because you can bond over the subject matter, study together, share exam preparation; some of the greatest friends I've ever made have been through cold call introductions before or after lectures. Joining clubs will help you socialize, and you can learn many interesting points of view other than your own (in my first year, I joined Pro-Life and Pro-Choice, Vegan Club and Meat Club, Young Nats and Child Labour, to know all the different sides to issues). Having familiar faces and a broad view of what's going on will be enormously helpful to your time as a university scholar.

At the same time, don't lose your head. Don't drink so much free alcohol at a debate society meeting and have an ambulance called on you. Don't go to dodgy nightclubs at three in the morning at the invite of someone you don't know very well. Do not hook up with other students who have committed relationships because you're both fleetingly attracted to each other. You need to be accepting of other people to some degree, but take care of yourself. You have to make sure you're making safe decisions because, like your academics, your own personal safety is going to be more in your hands than anyone else's. This period of your life is yours to shape however you choose, but you need to make the conscious decision to make it good.

I would also like to address the issue of what you will be studying and whether it will be worth it. Here is my honest answer- whatever you're studying, as long as you find that it is worth it, then it is worth it. I copped a lot of flak from fellow students, mainly the ones who did science or commerce degrees, because I did a double-major in English and Film Studies; however, it was the best degree for me because after everything is said and done, I found that those subjects appealed to the intellectual side of me. Don't judge other people about what they're studying (even if it's Fine Arts) or what university or polytechnic they go to because it might be better for them than for you². If you're in your first semester and you don't end up liking what you're studying, you can always change your major, though if you're halfway through semester and can't drop the paper without financial penalties, I would suggest you at least make a wholesome effort to go to class and scrape a passing grade.

Finally, I would like to point out the suitability of prospective university candidates. Not everyone should go to university. If you did not like writing essays and deadlines and exams when you were in primary and high school, maybe going to university isn't for you. People wonder whether spending three years getting an arts degree is worth it when they could be working, traveling, or doing something else that is also valuable. If going to university ends up marginalizing who you are as a person, then don't go. If you want to become a professional snooker player and you are passionate about that, then university is not going to help that much and will probably take you further away from that ambition. Here's the thing that no one tells you- your university experience will be personalized to your character, and everyone's experience is slightly different. I can also truthfully say that going to university was the best thing that ever happened to me, and that if I could, I would do the entire thing all over again and not change a thing. If you want to be a rocket scientist, a degree in engineering would probably help you out but a lot of the time, career paths aren't that simple³. It is perfectly okay to not know what you want to do with your life right now, and you are only committing yourself to university one semester at a time.

So have an open mind when you begin this adventure, because you're going to need an open mind in order to navigate through these turbulent, but often fun, waters. My final piece of advice is to make friends with at least two kinds of people- other first-years who will be learning with you and who you can make this journey with together, and second or third years who have already completed the first-year experience and can ease the transition you will be facing. I wish you the best of luck in all of your classes, and welcome you to university.

You have a lot to learn.

Yours, truly

Ruby

1 Unless you are a mature student, a kind euphemism for someone over thirty who is beginning their tertiary education for the first time. If you are a mature student, I beg of you, do no ask questions during lectures because that is what tutorials are for. Do not bring your children to class- ever (find a nearby daycare if you have to). Do not show up late to class- just because you are a little older, you do not command an iota more respect in a classroom than any of your fellow undergraduates.

2 I mean, after you're good friends with someone, you should be able to tease them about anything, including what they study but make sure you're good friends with them first. My litmus test for friendship is seeing whether they will let me embarrass them in a bar, but in case you don't go to bars, a library would work just as well.

3 You might also belong to a category of people who don't know what they want to do with their lives. In your case, I would suggest picking a major at university that sounds interesting to you and going for a semester. You might use the time hashing out how your life is going, meet people who can counsel and support you, and then you might figure out what you want to do in life.