Doyin's Blog

Let me take a moment to point out the obvious: college is harder than high school. So obviously I’ve had to make some adjustments in order to better acquaint myself with college life. These are a few of the lessons I’ve learned at UT after my first month here:

1. Get good walking shoes

I don’t really need to elaborate on this one much. Just get some good shoes that are comfortable and can go the distance without falling apart and/or causing you pain. I had to learn this lesson the hard way. A lot of my cute shoes are spending most of their time in the closet… They only see the light of day when I’m walking anywhere within five minutes… and that really isn’t the case most of the time. So when you’re out shoe shopping, ask yourself this: Could you survive a walk to Kinsolving from Jester in those shoes?

2. Plan ahead

Since we’re on the topic of walking, here’s another lesson that I learned on the first day of class. If your class starts at 12:00, start walking towards it by 11:40, 11:45 at the latest. Give or take a little depending on your starting point. On that Wednesday when classes started, my first class was at 12:00 in the RLM (Robert Lee Moore Hall) and sitting in my little dorm room in Moore-Hill, studying the map (a freshmen’s UT student’s best friend), I thought I could leave my room by 11:50 and still get to class on time. Of course I was late to class. And it just had to one of those lecture rooms where the only entrances are at the front of classroom so everybody got the chance to stare me down when I walked in. So even if twenty minutes sounds like too much to walk somewhere and the distance may not look like much on a map, you never know what will happen on your way (i.e. construction, friends you have to stop and talk to, bikers trying to kill you, impossibly slow crowds of synchronized walkers, etc.) and everyone knows it’s better to be safe than sorry.

3. Read the books you spent hundreds of dollars on

I wasted the first few weeks of class simply listening to the professor, taking notes, and completely taking it for granted that every thing the professor said was all I needed to know. That I didn’t need to go home and open my book and read to really know the information. Once again, I was wrong. This is probably a “duh” for some people, but I had to learn the hard way. Thankfully I’ve realized my mistake and hopefully not too late. I’m now caught up on all the reading I put off, because (and I’m strictly speaking for myself here) I really like UT, and I’d like it even better if I could return next fall. Ya know?

4. Get Help

If you’re like me, and reading your book and studying on your own isn’t enough for you, then there’s a lot of help available. Especially if you’re a freshmen. The UT Learning Center (on the third floor of Jester West) is a great place to go. I was just there yesterday to schedule my first free tutoring session. I need all the help I can get in Calculus. So just talk to people when you’ve got a problem. Even some of the upperclassmen are ready and willing to help out, you just need to ask.

OK, I’m feeling a little weird giving advice to people. After all, I’m just a freshman in my first month here. What do I know? Apparantly only four things…

But man, I’m glad it’s Thursday. Thursday’s an underrated day. I feel like it deserves a lot of credit because it is the day right before Friday and any day in close proximity with Friday is a good day. That’s also why Monday and Tuesday are the most disliked days out of the week… You know I’m right.

Oh, and even though this has nothing to do with anything I’m talking about, I just want to say that my friend Timi Komonibo’s really awesome and she’s one of those upperclassmen ready and willing to help out.

=Doyin