rules.

Walking around campus the other day, I saw swarms and swarms of high school students viewing the facility and had to stop for a moment - three years ago I was one of them in grade eleven, so lost and trying to figure everything out. I remember looking at Ryerson and falling in love with the fact that it was downtown in a huge city, and that girls were wearing heels to class (my uniform currently). Amist all the books, pamphlets, Facebook group posts, etc. etc. I read about going to university, nothing could have helped me more than going and seeing everything firsthand.

Since then, I have tried to share my girly wisdom about university, such as last year with my old high school. My dear friend and I researched and interviewed students from all over Canada and the United States to see what real people have to say. No crap. What's real, and what's not going to make it into a published book. The magic in all of this? The teacher let us publish a real, raw advice page about university. I've even taken those thoughts and tips into my next year of schooling, and absolutely some have come into play.

I do have a few to add to the list:

1. Cite every single thing in an essay that you might be nervous about. I have had multiple friends struggle with this because of citing and not all have turned out to be a "slap on the wrist" like high school. It's easy if you keep track of your sources.

2. Keep an open mind about everything. You will make friends in every area of education, and some you didn't even dream people would be interested in. All programs are trying to promote themselves, and thus there are lots of events. As well, people do not want to go alone to these - go go go (with them) you might just have a fabulous time.

3. If you need to iron a shirt, wrinkle, anything in a rush - use you straightening iron.

4. Rain and snow are not your friend if you have short hair like me and you're running to class. However, hand dryers in the bathroom are, and they give you great volume.

5. Just go to class. When I dropped off a paper yesterday to my professor's office, he said he remembers seeing me in every one of his lectures. We then launched into an hour conversation about everything, and learned a great deal about future geography courses (which was going to be part my major at another university) to take in upcoming years. He then showed me his exotic food collection. I'm a dork, but there was something really cool about getting to know your professor as a person, not a teacher that doesn't have a life outside of the classroom, that led me into thinking about another route of education in university.

6. Walk around the campus or the city for an afternoon to get your surroundings.

7. Always have green salsa on hand for social gatherings. It's more fun than typical red/normal salsa, (I think it tastes better) and your guests will be interested. The best? Serving it with a little brie cheese melted in the centre. Cheap, and use the cheese after for other meals.

8. Have fun. Take a risk and really, try something new and go to a new part of the city that has not been discovered yet. Yesterday, it was the Harbourfront, which may be my summer destination in-between taking classes.

More to come...