Advice from faculty member, Dr. Aho
- Students are humans first. Your brain weighs about three pounds but uses one-fifth of the energy in your body. So, you need to get enough to eat and stay hydrated in order to learn. As Virginia Woolf says above the Dining Hall doors, “One Can Not Think Well, Love Well, Sleep Well, If One Has Not Dined Well.” It’s better to sleep than it is to pull all-nighters. Exercise. And don’t forget mental health is health.
Photo courtesy of Dr. Aho - Get connected and stay connected. Mama T is right to emphasize finding your community—including faculty, librarians, and staff. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or visit office hours. Successful graduates report that having a professor to talk to about things that matter is one of the most important features of their college career.
- Become who you are. Like all of life, college is about choosing who to be. But it’s an intense time for doing so because we get to start over—to some extent—every semester. Make sure you’re learning about yourself and focusing your efforts. It’s better to thoroughly commit to a few things than to try everything.
- Don’t just learn what, ask why and know how. It’s easy to feel like we can just google the answers, but college is about learning skills. One important skill is learning how to ask the right questions, including the ones that challenge us. If you are lucky, you will be made uncomfortable by the content of some of your classes. Embrace this. Such moments can lead to the most growth, even if it may not seem like it at the time.
- Look beyond the always-open gates. It’s never too early to network. And post-COVID, one goal of Tarleton is to help you go places—in Stephenville, in Texas, and around the world.
