Starting College 101 (in no particular order):

1) Take an easier schedule your first semester, and ask upperclassman who to take.  They know better than advisors.

2) Try to meet lots of new people and try lots of new things.  Join at least 2 clubs or teams or cults a semester.  Don't worry if you don't like something - you can always drop it.  Now is the time to try Salsa dancing, or Crav Maga, or Slam Poetry, or Zen Meditation, or Archery, or....

3)  Get up at the same time every day and leave your dorm room.  Try to work for 7-8 hours (including classes) without Facebook, or napping, or cat videos.  Then try to stop at the same time every day.  Never work in your dorm room, that should be a place in the evening for socializing, relaxing, or sleeping.

4) Don't stay up too too late.  And no napping, it will screw up your sleep schedule.

5) When you drink, make sure to stop at least an hour before going to bed, and then drink lots of water - you will avoid being too hung over in the morning.

6) Go to all your classes even if it is a waste.  If you need to, do work in the back of the class, but skipping creates a slippery slope and you don't want to see where it leads (hint:  it's bad).  Remember  - teachers often change their syllabi and schedules, and you may only hear if you are in class.

7) Go to office hours at least once early in the semester, and introduce yourself to the professor.  You will be surprised how often this will help you later when you need it.

8) Get a tutor each semester for your hardest class the second week, and only stop when you are sure you don't need it.  Tutoring isn't for slow-peds anymore, it is just a more efficient way to learn.

9) No phone or computer or video games 30min before bed.  Keep to a night time ritual that is soothing and calming.

10) Remember you are there to learn, and grades are really epiphenomenal.  If you learn the material, you will mostly do fine.  Grades are a false economy meant to motivate lazy learners.

11) Sign up for one more class than you intend to take, and drop the one you like least within the first two weeks of school.

12) Find a friend to have ridiculous, deep, philosophical or political conversations with.

13) Find a friend who is very different from you, who you might not normally talk to.  Have an open mind.

14) Find a friend who has a characteristic or two you would like to emulate.

15) Remember, your friends don't need to be perfect, or even perfectly dependable, as long as you have a few of them, and you do your best to be a good friend to them, you will usually have someone around when you need them.  And don't be silly, when you need help, ASK FOR IT.

16) Use your common sense.

17) Be spontaneous and silly sometimes, and try not worry what people will think of you.

18) Consider doing research at least once.

19) Consider going abroad at least once.

20) Try to get a co-op or a summer job you can call an "internship" as soon as you can.  Job experience is incredibly helpful in a number of ways.

21) Take some classes just for fun.

22) Don't forget art.  Go to live music, a museum, a poetry reading, or fire spinning.  Make something you like, or at least try.  Selfies don't count.

23) Don't sleep with someone you can't see yourself loving sometime in the future.  Don't fall in love with jerks.

24) If you break up with someone, do it in person, and try to be both honest and kind.

25) If someone breaks up with you, show some character and self-respect.  You will feel better about it later.

26) Travel with friends somewhere, or just explore where you live.

27) Exercise regularly, but don't be nuts about it.  When you are getting more stressed is the time to exercise more regularly (not less).

28) Learn to love your body (and stop obsessing about every little thing about it, that's so middle school).

29) Study days ahead of time in short repeated spurts, not all at once the night before a test.  All nighters are stupid, try to avoid them.  I promise you won't do better by making yourself a zombie.

30) Don't use other people's stimulants to stay up or wake up.  It is dangerous and dumb.

31) Don't do drugs lightly, if they change the way you think or feel, they are changing your brain's chemistry.

32) You don't have to tell your parents everything, but don't flat out lie to them.  If you need help or if life sucks, tell them.  They get off on trying to be helpful, even if they don't act like it.  You will make them feel useful.

33) Learn to cook something.  

34) Eat 3 or 4 times a day, and don't eat just junk.  

35) Never weigh yourself, and resist the urge to look in the mirror critically.  

36) Don't eat or starve yourself to handle stress or emotions.  Eat when you are hungry.

37) Don't be afraid of your emotions.  They can't hurt you.  You control what you do, not how you feel.  If you aren't wild about how you are feeling, don't stress, you will feel differently soon.  It is like the weather.

38) Consider journaling about feelings, or dreams, or just your crazy ideas.

39) Don't be afraid to get a counselor or therapist.  There is a lot of stuff going on in your life now, and it is smart to get help to sort it all out.

40) Try "to do lists," but keep them short, with only 3-4 things you really need to do on them.  Use your calendar on your phone for other reminders.

41) Learn to check your email, and make sure to set up your voice mailbox on your phone.  You need to join the adult world, and that means you can't text everyone all the time.  Leave messages when calling adults (old people).

42) Get a credit card and use it some, but pay it off in full every month.  This will build you good credit, but keep you out of debt.

43) Learn how to survive being poor.  It is a good skill.

44) Never drink (or use any other drug) and drive.  Ever.  Hell, that is why there is Uber.

45) You can not sleep with someone for the first time if they are drinking/drunk at all.  That is date rape, even if you are also drinking.  Sorry, sunshine.

46) Don't smoke nicotine, especially Hooka.  Love your lungs.  And don't give me that shit that vaping is fine for you.  We don't know that yet.  And just because weed is "natural," it doesn't make it good for you either.

47) Learn how to research things, so you can tell the difference between opinion (there is a lot of this out there) and fact (there is much less).  Use facts to form your opinions when possible.

48) Don't put stuff off just because it makes you nervous or scared. This a recipe for growing panic and eventually crippling anxiety at the last minute.

49) Practice relaxing.  Sometimes it is good to just do nothing.

50) Don't be afraid to think for yourself.