Leaving high school and getting to a place where you are a free bird is one of the most looked up to things but choosing what to do when you get there is the most crucial thing and decision you need to make.

Sometimes you get misled simply because you let the freedom get to your head forgetting that there are people you left behind and are looking up to your success.

Esther Namatovu (Not real names), Makerere University alumni says she started having crazy thoughts about the university simply because her family resided next to a popular university and all she could see was people living in glamour.

“Each time I passed by the campus going to school, a lot of to do list things ran through my mind and I could not wait to get out of secondary and join the university which I eventually did,” narrates Namatovu.

“Unfortunately or fortunately for me, I did not move to the hostels since our family home was not far from the university. That is something that I felt was not good for me since I was going to be monitored,” adds Namatovu.

She says fact that she already had her crazy ideas, nothing would stop her so she forgot about studies and concentrated on the glamourous life which led to her five years study for a course that was meant to last three years.

“Once a person goes to campus without focus, there is a lot that can happen to them because the place is full of characters that rub their habits into individuals and these could be both positive and negative,” explains Ali Male, a counsellor and psychologist at A-Z Counselling centre.

Take the child in you along

He advises students to listen to the adults around because their words will help orient them mentally and with that they will know what exactly they should expect from the other world.

“Running back for advise in the times when you stray away is not being weak but seeking to be a better person which will continuously lead you to a better path,” says Male.

Friends you keep

Male says that while there, it is not all about the company you keep but you as an individual and what you hope to achieve during your stay there.

He is of a view that much as friends are meant to be kept, they are the people who influence the most so those to keep in your lives should be selected carefully and less of what they do should be taken up.

He says the student should have a mind of their own so that they are held accountable for whatever their campus outcomes may be.

The expectation

Male says the expectation that a person has is what usually drives what they do so it is better for them to get a reality check so that mistakes are avoided.

Namatovu says high expectations and excitement usually makes people forget what exactly they are supposed to do and instead of balancing fun and studies, they end up concentrating on what they are not supposed to.

Male says a student should know that just as the other institutions they have been in, university also needs the same attention regardless of the setting.

The liberty

Namatovu says university is a place where people are free to do what they want but you should not let it consume you because in the later days your parents need you to account for the tuition they have been investing in you.

She says apart from the parents, you also need to do it for your sake because it is your future that you are working for and doing it the right way may make your life easier.

Impressing the people around you

Oyesigye stuart, a lecturer at Kyambogo University says being at campus does not mean you have to change your behaviour in order for the public to recorgnise you as a literate.

Most students start doing things that they think make the public recorgnise them as campusers not knowing that most of what they do demeans them and all people care about is academic excellence.

Getting good grades

He says instead of doing that, they should focus on getting good grades that will earn them more respect other than living a lifestyle that will cause self-destruction.

For one to get good grades, they should make sure the campus routine is followed, all lectures are attended, course works and tests are done and handed in, research is carried out and importantly time is properly apportioned for each.