How fun was high school? Man. Phew. Wish that could’ve lasted forever. All that pressure on friendships, on relationships, and of course, that final stressful year? Great times!

But you made it, and now you’re at university, ready to knock your first year out of the park. How do you make sure that you’ve shed that skin of that nervous Year 12?

Expand Your Circle 

It’s so easy to hang on to friendships that only made sense because you saw them five days a week. It can feel safe to fall back to the people that you have always hung out with, because it is easy and you have known them forever. But there is a whole new world (thanks Aladdin) out there for you now!

I’m definitely not saying to cut ties with everyone who you have ever known: that would be madness and nigh impossible. But you should make an active effort to put yourself out there in a new environment. Join a club, go to the pub crawl, sit next to someone new in class. Although it’s scary to do, and we all bow down before the beast of rejection, you’ll find that people are a lot nicer than we give them credit for. Give it a go.

Go To New Places 

How good is that chicken place in your hometown? You know all the staff, sometimes they give you a sneaky discount, and you usually bump into someone that you know. But now that you’re branching out with your friendship group, why not also apply that to the places you haunt? You should dive head-first into the challenge of finding the cheapest, tastiest and most fun venues adjacent to your university, rather than sticking with what you know. Have you even eaten okonomiyaki? Or have you always passed by that fancy French bakery instead of braving it and going in? Now is the time, pal.

Learn Something New

Chances are, you are doing your degree in something that you are interested in – fair enough! That makes so much sense. But we’re so young, so how can we decide exactly what it is that we are interested in yet? There are bazillions of things that you can explore out there, so why not give something completely different a bash?

If you have room in your course for electives, see if you can take something that you have barely scratched the surface of previously. You’re doing commerce – why not look into literature, or poetry, or a wine-making (let’s be real) class? You’re doing arts – why not learn more about the world around us by looking into environmental sustainability? The possibilities are endless.

I’m Not Saying Dye Your Hair, But Dye Your Hair 

Physical appearances aren’t relevant, really: do whatever you want and look however you feel comfortable. Your first and primary goal is to love exactly who you are. And my personal favourite part of starting university was getting to experiment with new looks – wearing my hair down, putting together different outfits, and getting a bunch of piercings.

Listen To The People Around You Because They’re Usually On To Something

One of the best things about being at university is that these institutions are usually the birthplace of some really great ideas. Of course, there are different levels to this – while the research labs are discovering amazing bacterium, the kid sitting next to you in class has also found an awesome new band. You’re surrounded by brilliant people with brilliant ideas, so listen to what they have to come up with. You can get some good TV recommendations, you can listen to some new music and podcasts, and you can also have some really meaningful conversations with some really switched-on people.

That’s what’ll help you grow as a person, beyond that strung-out high schooler.