I was introduced to a Triangle via Tumblr that I wish I would have seen my first week in college. It was a simple, black and white triangle, with three options at each point. “Good Grades, Social Life, and Enough Sleep. In the middle of the triangle it said: Choose Two.”

As I began to think of my choices, I reflected back on my past three years at Buffalo State. I came to realize that freshman year was a clear representation of  “social life” being the highest point of my triangle. Needless to say, I didn’t exactly make the Dean’s List, and I had a lot of sleepless nights at the library paying for it.

I’ll give you a cheat code though! There is a way of choosing all three. The great thing about college is that after 3 Spot Coffee sessions at the library and snoozing your alarm three times to make your 9:25am class, you are forced to re-think how you are spending your time.

My Freshman Experience: I came in as a second-semester freshman. Everything was doubly overwhelming. I applied every social norm from high school to college, and I was so wrong. I was way more concerned with fitting in, finding stress-relief in parties (which, by the way, you go to one – you’ve been to them all), and waiting last minute to work on all of my academics. Once those final grades came, I realized sophomore year had to be different.

Instead of dropping partying cold turkey, or what I thought would be just having a boring college life, I found substitutions. My feeling of fitting in soon fell out. The movie Mean Girls is an entirely too accurate representation of high school hierarchy, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised to learn that there isn’t really an equivalent to “The Plastics” in college.

I picked only two events out of the month to attend, and I joined my favorite organizations on campus. The biggest substitution was to my academic life. I purchased a planner, alarms were my best friend, and the library became a 9-5 office for my schoolwork. With the substitutions, discipline, and new found “me,” I was able to conquer the entire triangle.

I hope along with this chart, the survival triangle becomes something you can master. Remember that mistakes are inevitable in the beginning, but they give you something to learn from.

Email: [email protected]