"Oh the test is tomorrow? It's fine, I don't really study." "No, I haven't started the paper... It's due Friday? Oh, I have two more days. I'll still get an 'A.'"

Is it really procrastinating if everything gets done in the last minute, but you know you'll still ace whatever you do? For me, this is how I went through high school. I was blessed with classes that I loved, was interested in, and could totally BS my way through if I really had to. I went through high school with a great GPA, and finished in the top ten percent of my class, but I never studied.

They always tell you, "Just wait for college, everything gets so much harder." And for some people that may be true. For me, it just wasn't. Until it was.

Let me take you back, as a freshman most of my classes were core classes, which didn't really stress me out too much, especially because of the Communication classes that were right up my alley. I love to talk and to write and basically that's all that we did, with a little bit of learning. I finished my freshman year feeling great about myself, ready to start working for the school paper, and ready to add a second major.

Wrong. There really is only so much that a person can do, which I found out the hard way. I started my sophomore year high on a freshman year cloud nine. I could do anything and everything.

I was juggling sports, work, school, newspaper, an internship, and then writing for the Odyssey. And I finally hit my limit.

For the first time in my life, I worried about not getting something done on time. I worried about not getting an "A" on a paper.

I looked at my peers and realized they really do have one thing that I do not. Study skills. Not just for tests either, for lectures and for projects and time management. That's when I realized everyone was right.

Study skills are some of the most important things a student can learn before coming to college (notice I said before coming to college), because when you get here it's so hard to teach them to yourself.

I wish that I had taken advantage of the workshops on study skills and time management. Ironically I thought that I would be the one to beat the odds, to cheat the system, and be able to get through college without studying. But that really isn't the point of college.

As a kid who never studied in high school, I'm sharing my real story. They weren't wrong. Some days you will have to say no to your friends to study for a test the next day. You will have to get a tutor for the hardest class you've taken so far. You will have to get study skills and you will have to learn to use them.

It may seem like there is no way you can break the habit, but I'm telling you, if you're reading this, it isn't too late.

From the kid who's managing her time, and learned to study.