DEAR FRESHMAN, THIS IS FOR YOU AS YOUR JOURNEY HERE BEGINS BY SEGUN OGUNLADE

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If you’re reading this as a freshman, it means you are qualified to do so. If not, you wouldn’t be here. Many are called; few are chosen. The chosen of the university are congratulated as new members of this academic community. You probably have read myriads of articles like this elsewhere. But advise like the ones contained in this piece are never too much for a fresh student like you. If students that have been here before you cannot guide you, who will? My bits of advice are not too many so I wouldn’t bore you. Besides, the effectiveness of an advice is not in the multitude of the words it contained.

As you read the following paragraphs, open your hearts. They contain advises that have been proven practicable for a long time for them that dare to use them. Don’t look at the simplicity of the message but rather how you would live by them.

GET OFF TO AN EARLY START

Nothing sustains a building than a good foundation. Likewise, a good academic result is possible with a good start-off. Your end result would be how well you’ve built on your first-year result. If you want to finish well and strong, you need to start strong. As experience has shown, your first year goes a long way in shaping your graduating grades. When you start well, you can be assured of a good ending if you keep up the zeal. If you start off very bad, it would be more difficult to build as you go on and since you’re here primarily for academic purpose; you should face that as early as possible. Your first year is important here at the university. It determines whether you would continue or you would be sent off to an early graduation by being tsunamised. Many lecturers are lenient with their marking scheme for students in their first year so you can seize the medium to work hard and get something good out of it. If you are unaware, it is very easy to fall than it is to rise. If you want to graduate top of your class, you should not wait till your second year to start working towards that- graduating with a first class or second class upper means serious work. If you are far off in your academic journey, finishing below second class upper division is no joy. Just like a friend would say, “don’t major in minor and don’t minor in major” which means one should not be active where one should be inactive and one should not be inactive where one ought to be active.

ENGAGE IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES

Getting involved in some non-academic activities is a good way to develop as a student. There is no joy in being known as a class goer without any involvement in extracurricular activities. A complete student wouldn’t limit himself or herself to only classroom activities. Engaging in activities beyond the classroom helps you to meet likeminded working towards self-development. It is also a means of exploring and discovering the inner you. There is no way to know if you are good at something if you don’t spend time doing it. Don’t be swayed into believing that engaging in extracurricular activities isn’t good for you as a fresh student. It is nothing more than a fallacy to think that an outdoor involvement will affect one’s academic performance as believed by active classroom goers who are most likely struggling with their academics.

The earlier the better; It is not about what you do but how it matters. The amount of time you use in doing them also matters. Do not spend so much time immersing yourself in extracurricular activities at the expense of your academics. Neither should you live your life as a student only in the classroom. Don’t let your life as a student end in the classroom. Prioritize activities and events in your life.

There are many ways to get involved in activities outside the classroom. If you are a good speaker with the ability to convince people, the Literary and Debating Society either in your faculty, hall or department is a good way to start honing your skills further. If you know how to write and address issues of importance, joining a local press organisation on campus will help you a lot. Joining the school team for sporting activities would is also an option that can aid development. All you have to do is know your strength at and aim at developing yourself further. These days, it’s no longer what you know but what you can do that matters. Like an old friend would always say, don’t let yourself be defined by your course of study.

CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES WISELY

It is a well-known fact that many new students have never spent more than twenty-four to forty-eight hours away from the watch eyes of their parents. Coming here to the university means unlimited freedom for many for there would be no mummy to give curfew or a daddy to always check up on you in your room. You are now on your own and will have to solely take decisions.

As man is gregarious by nature, you can’t do without friends, at least one. The type of friends you choose here will either make or mar you. Moving with either the right or wrong type of friends would also affect you. You are now at liberty to choose your own friends and mingle as you want. Cultivate friendship with likeminded people so you would not be distracted as you move on. Be careful and analytical of all those that come your way especially in the early days of your sojourn here. Some would come with good intentions while many others would come to steal, kill and destroy you. In the end, we all shall be judged individually. If you allow the friends you chose to distract you from your main goal here, regret is the end result. For your own good, do not rush into making friends without first knowing the type of person you want to be friends with. Remember, it is better to be alone than to be in a bad company.

 

LISTEN MORE THAN YOU TALK WHILST ALSO BEING A DOER AND NOT A TALKER

It holds true that it is only a foolish man that talks when there is nothing to say simply because they want to say something. When you speak, you are repeating what you know; when you listen you learn something new. Even the Good Book succinctly puts it that foolishness abounds in multiple of words. Don’t go about talking about what you know when there is no reason to do so. This is a community of critical minds that judge people by results and not how well they speak about what they know. It amounts only to shame to talk endlessly with no result accompanying it.

A good way to go is to always show people what you can do instead of always telling them about what you can do and not doing it. There is greater affection for them that speak little but achieve much than them that speaks much but achieve little. Do not be always eager to talk when there is no need for it. Action, not words, is what’s important. Before you speak, listen. Above all, let your results speak for you. When you begin to speak more than everyone in the room, it becomes a problem. Don’t be the one that speaks much and do little.

AVOID PROCRASTINATION

As you might have heard, a procrastinator puts off what he is supposed to do today till the next day. There is no good in putting off what you have the time to do for the next day. Take care of today before tomorrow comes with its own troubles and work. As much as possible, do your assignment and other things as they come. The more you postpone putting your assignments to bed, the more workload you’re creating for yourself. Do everything when you need to do them. Procrastination will do nothing but weigh you down. When you put off all the things you ought to do hoping for a convenient time, be reminded that there is no time that is convenient for a procrastinator. A procrastinator will always find reasons to procrastinate even the mundane of things. For your own good, physically and psychologically, doesn’t be a procrastinator.

Once again, welcome to the University and to your journey of self-discovery if you are wise. Make sure you make your sojourn here worthwhile. Blessed are they that are advised and never despise the advice and the adviser.

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