All the mistakes you’ll inevitably make freshman year at BU

The transition from high school to college can be tough. If you’re like me, the change won’t be easy and you’ll end up making some of the classic freshman mistakes.

Fortunately, The Tab is here to make note of some of these missteps so you won’t make them yourself (or at least not make them all in the first month like I did).

Losing your room key and having to pay the insane fine for a new one

You’re going to put off having to pay the $125 fine for a new lock and key because you “swear you can find it” and know that “it’s got to be somewhere.” Then you’ll probably end up finding the old key in your sock drawer three days after the new lock is installed.

Wearing your lanyard around your neck

You swear you’re never going to lose your key again, so you keep it secure around your neck on the brand spankin’ new lanyard you got from the BU Bookstore. You can always identify your fellow freshman if they’re also sporting the lanyard, so wear it loud and proud.

Wearing white shoes to an Allston Frat

Did you just buy the cutest pair of shoes and want to make their debut this weekend? Well, don’t do it. They won’t look new in about four hours. The frat basements are darker and hotter than hell so it really doesn’t matter what you’re wearing anyway.

Sleepwalking. Oh, just me?

Woke up sitting in my floor mate’s closet at 3am and had to talk to two policemen, two EMTs, and two RAs. I promise I wasn’t belligerently intoxicated, I was just sleepwalking. Thanks to my FitBit, I looked at my sleep pattern and saw that I went to bed at one in the morning and got up an hour and half later. My roommate never even woke up, so you could say it was a good night.

Thinking you can rely on the BUS to get to class

It’s unreliable. You will be late to class, and you may even end up somewhere random in Boston, promising never to use the BUS again. You’ll be forced to go back to walking the dreaded 15 minutes from West Campus to class every single day, even if it’s freezing. Maybe learn to take the T in order to save yourself time and warmth because even with the BUS app, you’ll find yourself waiting 20 minutes for it to arrive.

Joining all the clubs right away

You’ll be swarmed by the club recruits at Splash and will end up giving them all your email. You’ll assure yourself that you have all the time in the world, and then after the emails start piling in, you’ll realize you have this thing called homework you should probably do. Sorry *insert random club president’s name here* but I will not be in attendance to the meeting on Thursday.

Not taking advantage of office hours

“I don’t need extra help, I was at the top of my class throughout high school.”

Okay, we’re not in high school anymore and unless you want to see a whole lot of red ink on your paper, go to office hours. Trust me, you’re never going to want to spend your free time talking to professors, but it helps build a solid relationship, especially in a huge lecture. It will actually give the professor a chance to learn your name.

Not knowing where the printer is

I still don’t know where the student printer on campus is. It would have probably been a good idea to track down the printers before classes started, so make sure you do so in order to avoid asking to use your neighbor’s printer every week. Seriously, someone please help.

Not being totally sure how to ride the T

A lot of students who are from rural areas, like myself, have never had to use public transportation on a daily basis before. Please forgive us if we take the inbound train instead of the outbound one and then have to Uber back to campus. Uber has become one of my good friends.

Thinking you can afford  T. Anthony’s twice every weekend

As tantalizing as mozzarella stick pizza might be (and how great it is for your figure), you won’t be happy when your debit card gets declined and your mom starts wondering why she has been getting charges for pizza at 2 a.m.

As embarrassing as making these mistakes may be, it’s all a part of the freshman experience and something that everybody inevitably needs to go through. One should learn to just embrace making these freshman mistakes because, let’s be honest, you’ll be making them through senior year.