aduation and the excitement of an excellent summer, it’s hard to dismiss the anxiety and fear hidden within regarding what’s right around the corner – college.

But rest assured, Class of 2017, you aren’t doing it alone. Many Grizzly alumni have been through it all before and have crucial advice for you, including a pair of former Californian editors.

Annissa Bensalah, 2015-16 editor in chief, is attending San Diego State and majoring in marketing. Her main advice is simply to get involved.

“Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone,” Bensalah said. “Get involved in clubs or organizations to meet people.”

Ashley Amor, 2015-16 co-managing editor, is attending the University of San Francisco as a nursing major. She warns about social life early on in college.

“You make a lot of friends freshman year,” Amor said, “but you come to realize that most of them aren’t your real friends by the end of the year.”

Both Amor and Bensalah agreed that the most important thing to focus on in college is time management.

“The biggest difference is the freedom to make your own decisions about time management,” Bensalah said. “You decide when to have fun, when to study, when to rest. 

“But with this freedom comes a lot of responsibility,” she continued. “Make sure to balance your time evenly and dedicate enough time to your studies or you’ll regret it.”

Amor agreed, stressing the importance of allocating your time wisely.

“You have so much free time to do whatever you want, and you think you can just spend it binge watching Netflix until you have a midterm coming up that you didn’t study for and then you’re screwed,” Amor said.

Amor also warns against letting high school laziness continue in college.

“That senioritis where you don’t wanna go to any classes ever?” she said. “Multiply that by a hundred because I spend every morning checking the attendance policy for my class to see if I can afford another absence. Pro tip – you can’t!”

Bensalah is more than an eight hour drive away from home, and the main thing she misses about San Ramon is her family.

“It’s hard being so far away from them,” she said. “I miss my mom’s cooking. No matter how good your college’s dining options look, you will get tired of them and hate it by the end of the semester.”

But the most crucial piece of advice of all came from Amor.

“Don’t take an 8 a.m. class!” she warned. “You’ll think you can handle it. You can’t.”