Last year I made the decision to take a break from school for a year so I can restore my passion for school. For two decades, I went to school continuously; granted, the first 14 years of my education are mandatory for all minors, but the years following allowed me to discover a passion. My years as an undergrad student at Cal State Northridge (CSUN) guided me to find something to be dedicated to.

When I started school, I wanted to be a computer engineer, but somewhere along the line I learned that I wasn't going to be able to be an engineer, so I redirected myself to English. After changing my major to English, my love for school reignited. I completed my undergrad in May of 2016 then decided to ponder about my future with a year off from school. Now that my gap year is coming to an end, I am nervous to go back mostly because I feel like I am out of practice. How does one prepare to go back to school after being out of school for a while?

From going shopping for the typical supplies, to researching the classes you will be taking, there are a few things one must do before school begins. First is to mentally prepare yourself. During my year off, I noticed that those who were still going to school were constantly stressed. You have to readjust your sleeping and eating habits with your class schedule; sometimes adjusting some of these habits can be one of the triggers for stress. Now imagine the change in habits along with a mountain load of work on top of that. The combination of all of this causes a rise in stress and sleep deprivation for a lot of students.

Another thing I do to prepare myself is the typical "back-to-school" school shopping. Obviously, everyone goes through this every year because the materials that we had previously have either been used or vanished. Of course, you can't go wrong with stocking up on paper, notebooks and writing utensils.

One thing that not many think about when it comes to preparing for school is your technology. Is your computer at home enough to handle the projects that you'll have to do at 3:00 in the morning the night before the project is due? Will it be fast enough to support the number of documents that you will be uploading and downloading your entire semester? Though not many people think about these questions before school starts, it should be considered because it's easier to buy a computer before the semester begins, rather than in the middle of the semester where you have less time to figure out your computer.

Whether this is your first time going back to school, or it's your last time, there are a lot of things that you have to consider. Everyone around you will be going through the same thoughts as you when you walk into the classroom; everyone is trying to get over their fears because they have ambitions that are bigger than those fears. Are you going to let the fear of school intimate you or are you going to be over prepared for what might be thrown at you?