University: My Thoughts as a Freshman + Helpful Cost-Cutting Tips!

So in about less than 24 hours, my university life will officially commence.

I am feeling the following things:

• Scared
• Excited
• Nervous
• Stressed
• Anxious
• Ready
• Joyous
• Scared

Tomorrow will be the first day of "frosh week" at my university. For those unfamiliar with what frosh week is, it's basically a week jampacked with events and parties for freshmen students coming into the university for the first time, geared towards building friendships with other freshmen and/or upper classmen and getting yourself familiar with the school and your professor. 

To sum it all up: frosh week is designed for maximum fun, as cheesy as it may sound.

It's a week with a bunch of games and activities, concerts at the school, season opener games, new friends, new profs, new school, etc, etc.

I don't do that well with meeting new people at first, it takes awhile to get me comfortable with it but I'm hoping to break out of my shell this week. Lucky for me, I won't be going into frosh week totally solo, I'll have my boyfriend with me, seeing as we're fortunate enough to be going to school at the same university.

After frosh week, we get one more long weekend and then it's CLASS IS IN SESSION on the 3rd of September. I'm pretty eager to learn (yikes, don't I sound like the most exciting kid ever?) but I am scared of not doing well. I've made all the vows and prayed every prayer that I will do well and be successful academically (amongst other things) but I'm just afraid I'll let things get ahead of me. I'm not a HUGE procrastinator, surprisingly enough and compared to most, so hopefully all my readings will be done on time and I'll be diligent enough to study suuuper hard for every quiz/test/exam/lab/etc.

Oh, Lord. Pray for me, guys, that I pass this year with flying colours and make the Mamabear & Papabear proud bears indeed.

On another note, another thing that's grinding my gears is the COST. I don't know any university student/parent of a university student who isn't pissed off at university costs.

Just for a quick overview, here's a list of what you'll be sacrificing your wallet for when you go to university:

• Tuition: For university, between $5000 - $12000+, it depends on the program
• Books: Between $800 - $1500
• Transportation OR Residency: Transportation can be between $250-$400/month whereas residency will cost you around $8000-$15000 for 8 months
• Necessary materials: Could be between $30 (if you're lucky) up to the hundreds (ie: Since I'm a BScN student, I'll be cashing out quite a bit for a nursing kit and other medical supplies, it depends on the program)
• Food: If you're on residence, you'll need a meal plan which will cost you an extra $2000-$4000 on top of your residence cost whereas if you're commuting, you'll have to budget around $50-$100 a week
• *A laptop: Around $500 - $3000 (BUT... some will argue that you don't need a laptop for university, just a pencil and paper and if you have a robotic hand that can write at a bionic speed or you're a completely incompetent typer, go nuts with that pencil and paper. I suggest buying a laptop, my opinion)

...See what I mean about university murdering your wallet? Student debt is not an uncommon thing, people, I see that now. Fortunately, there are tons of cost-cutting tips and I have some to share. Here they are:

1. APPLY FOR SCHOLARSHIPS/GRANTS/BURSARIES/OSAP/TUITION DISCOUNTS!!! This is probably my biggest cost-cutting tip. DON'T SLEEP ON IT!!! Surprisingly, many people don't take advantage of all THE FREE MONEY JUST SITTING IN THESE UNIVERSITIES!!! It literally takes 10 minutes at mosts to apply to these things and the requirements are usually: A) Be a post-secondary student B) Write an essay about how cool you are. I'm telling you, DON'T SLEEP ON APPLYING FOR THESE THINGS!!! 
2. If you're close enough to your university, look into commuting rather than living on residence. Commuting saves you TONS of money, residence nowadays is just ridiculously overpriced. Yes, I do know the commuting means you'll have to wake up an hour or so earlier than you would like to but in my opinion, waking up at 6 instead of 7 for an 8 am class is an easier sacrifice than $10000. *Note: This does not apply if you're hours and hours away from your university. In that case, please stay on residence.
3. Your campus store will offer discount codes - just ask around. Nothing beats getting something on sale/discounted rather than facing crummy full prices.
4. If you can and you have the opportunity to, PACK YOUR LUNCH and/or MAKE YOUR OWN FOOD! Meal plans are usually EXTREMELY overpriced and the food is not the most forgiving to that anticipated beach bod. 
5. Yes, I know it's university, you're of legal age and you want to go out to every club and buy bottles for every single table at that club. Unfortunately, your main status is that you're a STUDENT and not P-Diddy. You will have to prioritize your spending money and give yourself PRACTICAL allowances (and yes, that $250 sweater is very impractical).

That 5th rule is going to be a doozy and a half for me to follow but I'll try my best. 

I'm just SO ready to be able to enter a more "adult" life and be able to study what I actually WANT to study this time. Although, I'll be missing the childhood mindset and responsibilities when the most we had to remember was to get Mommy or Daddy to sign a permission slip. Now WE actually have to sign these slips ourselves... ugh. 

Going into university for the first time has made me scared for venturing out into the Big Girl World and leaving behind the security blanket that was my childhood/young teenagehood. I so took comfort and took advantage of everything that came so easy to me years prior, I know that now and I'll regret something and of course, I'll miss it.

Unfortunately, I have no choice but to put on my Big Girl Pants at this point in my life and go into university with my head held high, Macbook in tow and a venti coffee that is the only thing standing between me falling straight asleep on my lecture hall floor.

If I'm offering you one big tip on university, it's this:

Work hard, play harder. Be humble. Meet new people. Keep those family and any other loved one close. Be goal-oriented. Achieve. Break out of your shell. Explore. Laugh. Cry (really hard sometimes). Be open-minded. Make good decisions. Be kind to one another.

Good luck to all other freshmen - I'M PRAYING FOR ALL OF US! 

Good luck to any other university student out there.

University, I'm comin' for ya'.

Cheers.

Sty xo