The Do Nots of Student Life

You’ve heard it a million times…moving out of your parents’ house and into a student apartment while you’re in college isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (secretly though, you know it really rocks!) and you should watch out for the missteps and mistakes that land you back in your same old room, making the same lame excuses for the same old stuff.

If you want to stick it to the man (or at least all the people who are adamant you’ll screw up), check out this list of the do nots of student living and show ‘em what’s what.

Don’t do anything stupid

For your sake, let’s elaborate—“don’t do anything stupid” can be rephrased as, “If you wouldn’t do it in front of mom and dad, then don’t do it” (of course, noting the obvious exceptions). Avoiding the “stupid” in life is pretty simple—don’t do anything illegal, don’t do anything that breaks your lease (which requires you read the lease, genius), don’t binge drink (and don’t brag about it), don’t skip class (you do realize that you are paying to go to college, right?)…the list goes on and on. Always take it back to whether or not you want mom and dad to find out. If the answer is no…well then, the answer should be no.

Don’t flunk out

You’re pretty smart, right (seriously, everyone thinks they’re pretty smart…be honest)? Then you get that flunking out doesn’t just mean out of school. People will start looking at you as a flunk if you do something stupid (see above), get kicked out of school, lose your scholarship, get fired from every job you have, get evicted from your apartment (it happens more than you think!) or generally turn into a screw-up.

Don’t give up

The greatest thing about living on your own when you’re going to college is that it’s a learning period. Everybody expects you to screw up, and while they’ll probably vilify you when you do, inside they cheer for your victories even more than you do. (Remember high school graduation? That was for your mom, not you.) The mistakes you make as a college student living on your own will liberate you—from future mistakes, from being a kid and from depending on everyone else to be responsible for you. How does that taste? Pretty sweet, right? It must be victory.

Right now, you think college is all about getting out of the house and getting a better job so you don’t have to live in your parents’ basement forever. But it’s about so much more. College life is about growth. And there’s no better way to start growing than to live on your own, away from college and away from mom and dad’s protective watch. So saddle up and show everyone you’ve got the cahones to take on college…and the real world.