Keep Tabs On Everything

This is a follow up to my Orientation post from earlier today.  I wanted to further explain a crucial aspect of going to college. I thought about the sessions that I attended   I've talked about time management and responsibility before, but now I want to elaborate.  Yeah, we know that once college starts, all the responsibilities now rest with us, right? But what are some of those responsibilities? Not accounting summer classes, first of all, YOU and ONLY YOU can pick your classes. You may have people, like academic advisors or friends, who may recommend a schedule, but only you decide how to go about shaping your future.  This is important because if you constantly choose unrelated classes to your major, the longer you'll be expected to stay in school.  The more classes you take in college, means the more money you have to pay out. Education is a tool we take for granted, but remember it IS a committed investment.  You don't want to be stuck taking irrelevant classes that you still have to pay for without benefitting from them. 
    Along with irrelevant classes, be aware of deadlines. Procrastination is the WORST enemy of a college student, especially since it is so easy to do because of the free time. Take initiative to start, and finish, assignments early enough so that you'll have plenty of time to make changes if necessary. Deadlines will not wait for you, nor will they be merciful.  If you choose to ignore them, they WILL exact revenge on your GPA for being neglected. 
    Finally, keep up with your friends and family. You will have so much time, that you'll try to a lot it for doing things of personal interest like clubs, events, watching that favorite show, or sleeping.  Try to remember you have a social life out side of the classroom as well along with people you have relationships with.  Don't act "brand new" when you leave for college by acting like you forgot about your past group of friends and family back up.  Take time out of your "super-busy" schedule to check up on parents, brothers, sisters, friends, teachers, or whoever else after having so much time in between home visits. You want to add new contacts to your network when you come to college but you do not want your old contacts becoming stale and forgotten.