As Muslims growing, playing, and learning in middle-class American Canton, our lives more often than not shocked with the pivotal and inevitable event of attending college.  We may go for different reasons, but for most of us it is a necessary next step as we progress through life.  Whether we go to please our parents, advance our knowledge, or advance our position in this world, the pursuit of knowledge is a worthwhile effort.  With it comes a whole new battery of obstacles, strife, struggles, and rewards.  And as our high school days fall further behind and the beginning of our college days draw near, everybody and their mothers seems to have advice to share.

While most of what we’ll hear won’t be particularly deep, original, or entirely out of the realm of common sense, it always helps to be reminded of a few key ideas.   

Keep a connection with home. 

This applies more to the brothers than the sisters.  Call your parents!  They miss you!  It only takes a few minutes and can be done at any time, while you walk to the cafeteria or ride the bus to class.  There is always time for a quick phone call.  Tell them how you aced that easy quiz.  Tell them how well your studies are going.  You don’t have to get overly detailed.  They think about their babies all the time, and it really makes their day when they feel their babies think about them too.  Believe it or not, there is value in keeping your parents happy.  They are proud of you!  They just want to tell everyone how you are continuing to succeed.  And if you are not succeeding they will be there to help.  They’ll send you food, they’ll send you money, you’ll have a better relationship with your parents, and if you treat them they way you should life is just better all around.  So make the effort.

Change your ways while you’re young… DON’T procrastinate

You already know it, procrastination is BAD BAD BAD.  And while it’s a hard habit to break, you’d do well to try your utmost.  Most of us probably procrastinate in our schoolwork, and we probably haven’t learned our lesson because everything has seemed to work out so far.  But the negative effects of procrastination reach far beyond our tests scores, for I speak not only of procrastination in your 500 pages of reading, but in all aspects of the logistics of going to college.  Do not put off doing your FAFSA.  Do not put off signing up for orientation.  Do not put off registering for classes.  If there is something to be done, just DO IT.  It can only be good for you, while not doing it can only set you back, and more often than not will affect how much your parents pay for your education.   

Do not put off planning your future.  You don’t need to come in your freshman year with a 10-year plan knowing exactly what you want to do, but you should have at least a loose 4 year plan.  Don’t be that brother or sister that has to take another semester while the rest of his or her peers are graduating.  MSU has over 150 majors to choose from, explore them!  Go to a counselor and find out what opportunities are available.  You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing.  Pick up a double major or a concentration/specialization that has always interested you.  If you’re a hard science major, find a minor in a liberal art that connects to your major.  And don’t put it off, the longer you wait the more limited your choices become.  Almost everything in college is first come first serve, so don’t get stuck with what’s left over.   

Practice moderation

The concept of moderation should be infused and weighed against any and every piece of advice we decide to take to heart.  After all, the college experience is much more than what goes on inside the doors of a classroom.  With so many choices and ways to spend your limited time, it becomes very important to find balance between work and play.  Contrary to what your mother may tell you, making time to relax, be social, and pursue other venues of interest, like learning more about Islam, is just as important and getting straight A’s in your pre-med or engineering or computer science classes.  This idea applies to more than just lazy work ethic.  The plan is to make sure that you don’t spread yourself too thin by putting too much time into one aspect of your life.  There is value in being a well-rounded person with a variety of experience.  So don’t hang out exclusively with Muslim kids in the library.  Make Non-Muslim friends, join the swing dance club if it interests you, remember who you are and what you believe in and try to learn about all the things you’ve always wanted to learn about as well as the things you have to learn about, in moderation of course.   

The college experience is a very personal time of changes and growth.  We all face many new challenges of varying difficulties and we all find ways to get through them just fine.  So go forth without fear, remember your deen and hold on to it tight, and everything will unfold for the best, whether it seems like it or not at first.  In the end, everything is at Allah’s (SWT) mercy, so try your best in all your endeavors and keep your trust in Islam; everything will turn out just fine.  Maybe not the way we want or expect, but it will be fine. 

Everything I say is directed at myself first and foremost, everything that is right is from Allah (SWT), forgive me for anything that is wrong.