18 things on how to make the most of student life

Living the student life may be one of the most beautiful times for most of us.

This is the time that you don’t need to think too much about how to make a living, paying the bills, and a lot of named or un-named problems in life as when you graduate from University.

Therefore, let enjoy your student life and turn it into the best foundation for your future by choosing to do the right things that create beautiful memories for you as well as make you be grown in a positive way.

And the following list is 18 things that I did and love to recommend for you to do in your life, especially during years in the University that will help you to have the best memories and experiences in your early 20s.

1. Having your own goals

Doesn’t matter how big or small your goal is, but you need to own at least one for yourself. And this goal must start from your mind or your heart, not being impacted by outside factors.

For example, you have a goal to earn enough money to pay for your whole family vacation next summer, this is a great goal that you own by yourself.

But if you say that your goal is to complete all the tasks teachers give you a week before the deadline, it is not what I mention. Because it doesn’t something that you really want to do and can decide to do it or not. This is just a compulsory part of your Uni life, study, and submit the essay.

Your goals like your compass to show you the direction to go and focus on in your early 20s and make it be more meaningful for you.

2. Have your first love

If you already have a girl/boyfriend in your high school, you can ignore this one and move to the next one. But if you haven’t yet, your Uni life is the best time for you to start your first relationship.

It helps you to understand about another half of the world, create special feelings that you have never experienced before. Some of them are great, some that make you never want to mention again.

But life is the experience, and having a relationship is a kind of important experience that we all need to have, especially at the age of early 20s.

And one tip for you when having a relationship during this time is

Let quit ASAP if you feel stressed with it or your relationship ruins you with parties, spending money more, while don’t bring any positive values for you.

And choosing a good partner in your relationship will be the priority factor to decide if your relationship is healthy or not.

So, let carefully when choosing your partner.

3. Challenge you to stand on the stage and talk in front of many people

Have you ever stood on the stage and performed in front of many people before? Some of you did, but many never did it before.

I can totally understand this feeling when we are in high school, the people who can stand on the stage must be talented artists who can sing, dance or study very well that can stand there to make their own speech.

However, when you go to university, you don’t need to be outstanding to be standing on the stage.

What you really need is your brave.

Because at the University, we have dozen of activities per week, not just a few activities like in high school. And even in the class, you have group presentations when you need to present in front of a hundred of your classmate about the topics.

And by doing this, you are improving your confidence and public speaking skills. The factors that will play a vital role in your successful future in society.

4. Learn a new language and be fluently

This will help you to open many new doors for your career when you can speak an extra language.

For example, in my country, Vietnam, if you can speak English fluently, you can easily find a job in an international company with a salary starting at thousand dollars compared to just two to three hundred dollars per month if you start in a local company.

But you need to make sure that you really fluently at the language, not just the certificate or good score on it. Because in the business, people need the real conversations, not just good grammar and listening skill.

5. Having a part-time job to understand how hard money you make

If you were born in a middle-class family, you don’t really need to work to pay for studying fees in your University — This is a “luxury” that many people wish they can have, but they don’t.

But doesn’t matter you were born into a rich family or just a normal one, starting to earn your first dollars when you study in University should be on your “MUST TO-DO” list.

Because when you really start to earn money in your own way, from handy jobs as cleaning, delivering food to the jobs as a private tutor, PG(Promotion Girls)/PB (Promotion Boys),…you all learn valuable lessons for your life.

This kind of job for someone will even help them to pay for living fees, student loans, but just think about the life experiences and lessons you learn when you work, it already has own values that help you to grow and be a better person with more life experience than others.

6. Join in social activities and social clubs.

First of all, it will help you to have a lot of wonderful experiences in your student life when you get involved with others from social activities.

Later on, it also helps to build more social connections that will benefit your future.

If you have interested in sport, let join the sports club. If you feel interested in photography, let join the photography club,… Don’t limit yourself and think that you are not good enough to be a club member.

You just need to enjoy it, let join in and create great moments with your club mates with social activities.

7. Have trips with your friends.

Having a group of best friends in University and having trips together will create great memories for you when you think back about your student life.

At that time, you are young, energetic, and love to discover. You don’t need to worry too much about life and have a lot of time for yourself rather than for company projects, family issues, etc.

So, let plan with your best mates to create great trips together.

8. Leave out of your comfortable zone

Don’t limit yourself as you did in high school.

When you study at University, you are already over 18 and enough age to take responsibility for your life. And at that time, you have nothing to lose.

Any mistake you make will be known as a valuable lesson to grow you up. So let go out of your comfort zone and start to challenge yourself.

9. Living in the dorm

This is what I normally call “The Univesity Paradise” where you will live with your friends and can do a lot of crazy things together.

For many of us, when studying at the University means that we will move to another city to study. And living in the dorm is the best opportunity for us to grow when you will live with many other people.

Learning how to adjust yourself to live in a group is very challenging but it will help you to grow up rapidly.

10. Learn how to manage your money

You need to learn this lesson very carefully if you don’t want to have fun for the first two weeks of the month then eat noodles for the rest of the two weeks.

But this is a reality that happens with many students when they don’t know how to control their money, and feel happy to spend most of their money when they just receive it from parents for parties, shopping, eating outside,…

If you don’t want to face the same issue, you need to have your own money plan to know how much you can spend and what categories are you going to spend on.

It will help you to save a lot and don’t need to eat noodles all the time at the end of each month.

11. Don’t waste your time with parties, you don’t have that much free time, you just lack plans to do.

In your university life, you can easily receive a lot of party invitations all day long.

And when you feel like you have a lot of free time, because the lecturers at University don’t ask you that much homework as your high school teachers did, you will feel like you have more motivation to join in most of the party.

But let think carefully about it. Your time at the university is not that much freedom, it is just because you lack your working plan.

University life is the time when you self-learning and grow, nobody will control you strictly because you are already old enough to decide your life.

But these years are the most important years to build your strong or weak foundation for your success. It all depends on how you use your time.

12. Give 30 minutes at least per day for your family time

If you can live with your family, this is great.

But most of the students when going to University will move to another city to study. It means that they don’t have that much time with their family like before.

Therefore, spending at least 30 minutes per day to call back to your family is very important when it helps to maintain a good relationship between members of the family, update your day with parents, and not feel alone in the new city.

13. Be grateful for what you are having, doesn’t matter what

If you have good things happen in your life, that’s great. But if you have bad things happen and make you have a headache to solve the problems, let think it is your valuable lesson in life.

Being grateful for what you are having is the best way to help you always keep a positive mind and have more beautiful moments in the Uni years instead of just feeling boring and hating the things that happen to you.

14. Always remember your most important task is studying

Many of my friends when starting their university life, they just focus on earning money. Because they want to evidence for their parents that they are mature and old enough to do anything they want.

That’s great if you can earn money when studying at your university. However, always remember that your main purpose is studying, money is just an extra factor that makes your student’s life to be more interesting.

Because I saw many of my friends who focused on making money more than studying that leads to their failures in tests and need to study again twice for just one subject. Several of them when counting how much it costs for learning credits again, it is even more than the money they earned from their part-time jobs.

15. Figure out what you want to do when you graduate — having your own dream (not your parent’s dream)

Many parents want their children to choose the major, the University that they wished they can study before but they didn’t. This is a harsh reality that you can easily see in Asian countries and even in Western countries.

And if you choose the University and the major depends on your parent’s wishes without enjoying to learn. It will be very hard for you to be outstanding in what you are doing because it is not your dream, this is your parent’s dream.

When over 18, you are mature enough to decide what you really want and let listen to your heart and dream. Let show your parents your dream, and if you have enough brave and clear ideas for your dream, your parents can’t stop you and will slowly support you to do it.

16. Travel overseas to discover the world

To make the most of student life, traveling is the essential part. Let traveling overseas at least one time in your student life. This trip can be with your parents or your friends, whoever you love to go with.

Let go to discover the world, to see the difference between cultures, the beauty of new lands. This experience will help to enhance your knowledge, diversity, and understanding of the world rather than just watch through TV or the Internet.

Go and self-experience how beautiful and harsh the life is going on in different parts of the world.

17. Keep your body healthy with exercise and eating habits

When you are in high school, if you eat too many unhealthy foods, your parents will control you and ask you to eat more fruits, vegetables,…But when you are in University, anything you choose to eat will depend on you.

And if you just choose unhealthy foods like fast food, noodles, soft drink,…as they are cheap and convenient. You are ruining your health.

I saw many of my friends faced with stomach issues because of eating too frequently unhealthy foods and skipping meals. It leads to many health issues later on and the money they need to pay for the hospital could be more than the amount of money they need to have good and healthy meals during University life.

So, let being smart with your choice. Eating healthy to keep a healthy body rather than regret to waste money on medicines later on.

18. Believe in yourself

This is the last but also the most important habit that you need to self-practice every single day in your life, not just in the Uni time.

But the time at University is a very special period of time when you just start your own life and don’t have your family to stay with you.

You will live in a strange city, meet strange people, need to take care of yourself, and don’t have that much life experience before.

And “Believe in yourself” is a must-have habit that will help you to get over all the struggles in life. Because it will help you to support the belief that

After the tough time will be a good time, and if you never give up, you can achieve anything you want in life.

Final thoughts about how to make the most of student life.

The list can be longer, as I plan to write down 27 things list. But I choose to short it to focus on just 18 things that I believe are the most important for anyone to have the most of student life.

And the number 18 is also the age when most of us will start a new life at the university with a lot of excitement and many worries when the first time lives far away from our parents as well.

But when you finish this period of time and look back, you will see this time as one of the great times in your life, when you just grow enough to start to discover your world, and have a lot of passions, energy, and beliefs that no one can stop you.

When you choose the right habits and things to do, this time even becomes more grateful for yourself. And this list of “18 things on how to make the most of student life” will be a good guideline for you to start this journey.

Wish you have a great Uni life.

If you want to read more about personal development topics, let check it out at “Wiki Personal Development”.