By Daniel Muinde

Due to the copious amount of freedom and latitude to make choices, many students in the university fall into the trap of the following mistakes:

• Forgetting about God

It is incredible how spirit-filled and God-Oriented students matriculate into the university and wonder how they misplace God in their equation of life at the cost of the pleasures and pressures of the university.

At the onset of their stay in the university, most students seriously attend spiritual forums such as the Christian Union and are committed to its activities.

Sooner or later, some students equate God with a raincoat, which is only used during the rainy season. During the tough times and climes of adversity.

Importantly, students should prioritize God in their lives and their daily endeavors; never should He be an option.

• Poor Time Management

Henrik- Jan van der aptly states, “Time is the scarcest resource in any organisation. Unlike money, it passes with every second and you’ll never be able to earn it back.”

Besides the stipulated class schedule, many students lack personal schedules. They easily flow with the current of available activities.

Commonly, they respond to tasks on the verge of deadlines. Precisely put, they are not goal-oriented. A goal-oriented and planned student sets aside time for study, social interaction, spiritual growth, and leisure.

One should pen down activities scheduled for the next day each night before sleeping, not forgetting their order and the time allocated for each activity.

• Falling under the Trap of Peer Pressure

Lack of self-principles makes students fall to the whims of peer pressure. What your friends are doing may be correct, but what they are doing is essential to you now.

Is it urgent? Here comes the vast difference between you and your peers; a priority to self may not be a priority to a friend.

Students should set their priorities right and align their activities to the order of importance and urgency to battle being carried away by the negative influence of peer pressure.

Remember, it may be essential but not a priority. Decide the course you want your life to take and use it as a road map. Never be a feather that can be blown in any direction.

• Cohabiting

Here comes the deadlock. The dilemma of this and that, especially this. Is it right or not? Scrutinising the outstanding text by Robert T. Kiyosaki, “Why ‘A’ Students Work for ‘C’ Students and ‘B’ Students for the Government,” you will find out that life has 3 Windows (phases) of learning: 

First Window: Birth to age 12, Second Window: Age 12 to 24, and Third Window: Age 24 to 36.

The second window is called the ‘rebelling window.’ University students fall under this age bracket. Majorly students know with certainty that God designed sex for a married couple but still object to that fact.

Curiosity takes the better part of them, involving them in life accidents, which at times result in the traffic of life casualties. The best alternative is clad in self-control. Be guided by self-principles.

• Drug and Substance Abuse

Born omnivores, but competing with herbivores. Khat and the likes, of what help are they? Sniffing and injecting non-medicinal drugs, of what help are they?

I partially ‘concur’ that there may be a slight feeling of satisfaction, but only temporal. It is common for students to attend mega parties during weekends to steam off, but others overdo it in the process.

Consuming alcoholic drinks and other substances causes more harm to the body than help. Drugs interfere with your mental ability and potential.

• Laziness and Lassitude

Some students busy their bodies with immense laziness as if gifted. Maintaining high standards of hygiene is just an issue. Others get tired even before starting a task or an assignment.

Such are usually readily available to cling to others, benefiting from other student’s hard work. Such students never want to tire their brains with thinking, which is highly classified as hard work.

The contributor is a public speaker and a BSc. Banking and Finance student at The Co-operative University of Kenya.