My four years in high school felt like it lasted a lifetime.

Now, I’m in the middle of the summer before my senior year of college, and it feels like I started just yesterday. It’s insane how fast time flies by. Next year, I will be a college graduate, entering the job market, and relinquishing my duties as University of Oregon’s Uloop Campus Editor.

While my experiences in college were some of the best of my life (so far), I can’t help but look back over the last few years and wonder how different things could have been if I had more experience, or at least someone to guide me during those first months of foraying into independence. With summer upon us and a whole new generation of students getting ready to enter college life, I figured I could use my experiences to help aid those who may feel confused or lost in their freshman year of college.

One thing I should note is that many of these steps are not universal — I can only speak from my own experience after all — but hopefully this article will be useful to at least one person who finds themselves in similar positions.

Join a club

Like most college freshmen, you will probably spend your first year in the dorms, hopefully with a roommate who you don’t hate, and developing close bonds with your hall mates. As the end of freshman year rolls by, you’ll all tell each other that you’ll keep in touch next year.

And for many, this will be the case. However, there’s a good chance that you’ll lose touch with all your freshman dorm mates, as they move on, develop as people, and find new interests. That’s why, as early as possible, you want to join some sort of club or group in college. These are the people who all have similar interests to you, and if you go often enough, these are friends you will likely develop for life.

It’s not just social reasons you’ll want to join clubs. Depending on how closely related whichever clubs you go to are to your major or field of study, club meetings and events are great ways to network with people in your field of interest, opening doors for yourself once you graduate and start entering the job market. Plus, if you attend a large enough university, I guarantee there will be a group on campus, if not at least some sort of club in your city, that meets your interests, no matter how obscure.

Don’t move in with a significant other

For most high school graduates, college represents the first step into the adult world with minimal supervision. To many, this newfound independence represents a new chapter of life, with which to take control of your own life, forge your own path, and write your own destiny.

To others, this means romantic relationships without the threat of overbearing parents.

Depending on who you are, your first serious relationship in college will likely be much more committed than any high school counterpart. Being able to sleep over every night without having to worry about sneaking around suspicious parents, which means you’ll be spending a LOT of time growing accustomed to each other’s pheromones. That high you get from being around each other is going to feel great for a long time, and maybe after spending eight to nine months dating freshman year you’ll decide to get an apartment together for next year. After all, it only makes sense — you need a roommate, she needs a roommate, things are going great in your relationship and it would be awesome having a place together; you already spend every night together anyway.

My advice: give it another year, at least.

Maybe most people are smart enough to already know that, but I certainly wasn’t, despite receiving the same advice that I’m currently dispensing now. The fact of the matter is, living with someone completely changes relationship dynamics. Maybe one of you has a disgusting habit the other hates. Or maybe you like to keep things nice and tidy and your significant other is more accustomed to cleaning sporadically. If you guys get in a fight, there’s nowhere to go to give each other space to cool down (especially if you get a one-bedroom). Even if you rarely fight, neither of you will rarely have any “alone time”, which is necessary for a healthy relationship to work.

Worst part is, if you guys are living together during the school year, a break-up will not only affect your personal lives, but your school lives as well. Unless you guys are totally, unrealistically cool with each other, a break-up means that one of you is going to have to move out. So, one of you is left with no place to live in the middle of the school year, and the other is left having to pay full rent until being able to find another roommate, and you may not be able to afford that depending on your financial situation.

I get it, college relationships are a wonderful thing, and maybe you really do find someone who you really love, and may even be the “one”. However, living together in college just creates more problems than necessary, and even has the potential to break apart otherwise healthy relationships. Of course, everyone is different, and I only have my own personal experiences to draw from, but hopefully someone finds this advice helpful.

Intern early

Maybe I’m just stupid, but I didn’t even think about internships before starting college, and rarely considered them during my freshman year. Now, here I am in the summer before starting my senior year, and I have yet to start an internship. I have a plethora of experience in other places, sure, but unfortunately an internship has yet to appear on my resume. I didn’t plan ahead in freshman year, kept putting off applications during sophomore year, and by junior year I had switched majors so I had to start all of my networking over from scratch.

In today’s job market, a college degree is rarely enough to get you to the top of an application pile. Internships go a long way in terms of experience, networking, and putting you on the map. Many employers require internship experience if they want to hire you; without it, that degree might as well be a paperweight to them. Knowing to look for an internship early on in your college career is easily the most important advice in this article, and the one I wish I knew the most as a college freshman.

For advice on how to land an internship, check out these tips from our own Max Londberg.