Well, this school year has come to a close, and it's off to having fun in the sun. For college students, summer offers a few different options: get an internship somewhere AMAZING like NYC, India or somewhere else awesome, travel, stay in your college town or go home for the summer. Whatever the reasoning, many people do end up going home and living with their parents during the summer. Many things are different when you go home for the summer. After almost a whole year being an adult, it's time to return to your parent's home and follow rules that you threw to the wind the second you stepped on campus last fall. And you get to see all your old friends, the ones who came home anyway. You'll also see people you haven't talked to since you graduated that you were really okay with never seeing again. If you are going home for the summer, here are some things that will happen to you.
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Heading Home For The Summer
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8 Things I Realized After My First Semester In College
Actually, Kylie Jenner, 2018 is the year of realizing things.
The first semester of college is famous for being one of the most difficult transitions of one's young adult life. You're thrown into a completely new area where the majority of the people surrounding you are strangers in an academic environment that's much more challenging then what you've grown accustomed to for the past twelve years. On top of that, you probably share a room with another person (or even multiple people) on the lumpiest "mattress" you've ever slept on.
With this change comes a lot of questions: what do I want to major in? What am I passionate about? Is what I'm passionate about something I'm actually good at? Why does the bathroom smell like cranberry juice and vodka? What is that thing at the bottom of the shower drain?
After doing a lot of my own self-investigation this first semester, I have found out many things both about myself and the world around me that may be helpful for both future college freshmen and perhaps fellow first years to find out.
Waking Up Early in College is So Much Harder
This one is for the future freshmen: taking a class at eight in the morning is not going to work out well. In high school, I woke up at six-thirty in the morning every day, and although it was difficult, I managed to (usually) do it successfully. In college, however, even waking up at eight-thirty was almost impossible. Thankfully, I manipulated my schedule and kept my earliest class at ten, but some of my colleagues were not so lucky. You may not think you're going to skip a class just because it's early, but you're wrong.
You Have to Get Used to Walking Everywhere
In high school, I was lucky enough to have my own car that I could drive around virtually whenever I wanted. This meant that, according to my Health app, I was usually walking less than a mile per day. Within my first week of college, I was traveling over six miles per day on foot. After a month, fashion no longer became a factor in my outfits, and I switched out my cute, extraordinarily uncomfortable flats for a pair of supportive sneakers.
Fuzzy Socks are the Cure to All Problems
Towards the end of the semester, the pressure of looming exams and term papers started to feel overbearing. I couldn't focus on my assignments, and studying all night would leave me anxious until morning. One day, my roommate's mother sent us a wonderful winter-themed care package in which she included a pair of fuzzy socks for each of us. The moment I covered my toes with those penguin-themed socks, I instantly felt a sense of relief. For some reason, without fail, fuzzy socks are a powerful being that can make anyone feel better.
Take Every Opportunity to Get Free Food
Although escaping your mother's inedible pasta salad may seem exciting during your first few weeks of college, you quickly realize that dining hall food isn't really that much better. Whenever I saw posters or online flyers advertising an event on campus with catering, I made sure to plan ahead and put it in my calendar. Especially as a college student, you probably don't have a lot of extra money to waste on a nice meal at a restaurant (if you even have the time to go to a restaurant), so finding a club that's willing to offer a meal is the perfect way to spice up your week and avoid eating the soggy vegetable medley that your school offers.
It's Okay to Gain the "Freshman Fifteen"
The one thing that seems to terrify incoming college students around the nation is the notorious "freshman fifteen." Everyone is constantly checking what they're eating, avoiding the dessert section of the dining hall, trying to find a gym buddy because they think they've "let themselves go" after two weeks. Of course, it's important to be conscious of your health, but the body is a changing entity that is supposed to grow. It doesn't mean you failed college just because you gained a few pounds. At the end of the day, I'd rather just take a brownie.
Invest in Vitamins and Supplements
During my first semester, I watched almost the entire population of freshmen slowly descend into a month-long journey of illness. It starts as a cold, which turns into a fever, which turns into three weeks of used tissues and coughing fits. In a new environment, it's inevitable that you're probably going to feel unwell for the first few days once, but that doesn't mean the entire semester should be defined by sickness. After seeing a student wash down Advil with cough syrup, I decided to buy a multivitamin to boost my own immune system in hopes that I could avoid one of the many viruses going around campus. Although I cannot prove that taking my vitamins are what saved me, I definitely think it contributed.
Making Time to Clean is Essential
With classes all day and homework all night, it's difficult to plan out time in your day to vacuum. After a month of avoiding the task, I realized I was living in a rat's breeding ground, not a dorm room. Once I forced myself to take out the rubber gloves and wipe down the mirror, my room not only looked (and smelled) better, but I personally felt better. Something about a tidy room can truly improve one's mood, which is why I made sure to make time at least once a week to do some general dusting. Even if you're just using it as an excuse to avoid homework, it's still beneficial.
Drinking Water is Actually Important
Everyone is always preaching about how important water is, how we should be drinking some obnoxious amount like six gallons every twenty minutes, but I never listened. Obviously, I drank water regularly before, but I really did not understand its importance until my first semester of college. Whether it was from the time spent walking or the change in weather, I constantly found myself dehydrated. In every class, I was too focused on how dry my mouth was to process a lecture. When I started to consciously refill my water bottle throughout the day, I started to feel a greater sense of well-being overall.
There are a ton of tips and tricks that people tell everyone who's about the enter their first year of college: it's okay to change your major multiple times, make sure to bring a first-aid kit, don't bring every piece of clothing you own. But, there are some little things that people never bother to say, because they don't realize how important things like Windex and water really are until they're in the moment. The first semester is a struggle for all of us, but if you invest in some cute winter socks now, you'll avoid the potential stress later.
College is tough, we all know. Here are 8 gifs you will 99% relate to if you are in college.
1. Me after every class
2. If you really care about your grades
3. When you get a new homework assignment
4. When people ask what you're going to do after college
5. When you see people who don't study and get good grades
6. We're all broke here
7. FREE FOOD IS FREE FOOD!
8. When it seems like everyone in class is smart - EXCEPT THE PEOPLE IN YOUR GROUP PROJECT!!
7 Things College Has Taught Me
Other than knowledge and all those important things
So, college is the place where you're supposed to learn all of these amazing life skills.
Here are the top seven skills I have learned thus far.
How to take stairs.
College campuses have stairs literally everywhere. Even outside sidewalks have stairs! Going up each and every stair step can be exasperatingly tedious. In my personal opinion, the best way to conquer any step-laden campus is by taking them two at a time. I promise, it saves the patience you will need to last that three hour lab.
Caffeine is your friend.
man making a coffee lattePhoto by Jennifer Bedoya on UnsplashLike one kid in my biology class said, “I went from never having a cup of coffee in my life to having one everyday.” No matter how you take your caffeine: Coffee, soda or an energy drink, when you've had one of those extremely late nights, caffeine is a must! It's the only way to make it to the next gap in your day when you can finally take a nap.
How to study.
Photo by Unseen Studio on UnsplashI had to include this one because most college freshmen finally cultivate study skills during their first year in college. More or less, fortunately, I had developed some prior to arriving at college due to my insanely hard high school courses. But this is a truly important survival skill, which is first after scouting out free food.
Finding free food.
This is a survival skill at the most basic level — never pass up the opportunity for free food. There is nothing like the instant regret minutes after passing up a meal for which you didn't have to fix or pay. A few good places to check are: Club meetings, those weird campus events named after obscure holidays and over-zealous outside organizations that are in desperate need of college student involvement.
How to take a nap anywhere.
Photo by Sinitta Leunen on UnsplashI should probably have more dignity than this, but college has taught me how to sleep literally anywhere. I mean, after all, why do you think the student centers and lounges sport comfy couches and lounge chairs? And even if they aren’t all that comfy, we'recollege students and can’t be too choosy. If your room is halfway across campus and you only have 30 minutes before your next class, curling up in that green lounge chair is just as good as crawling in your bed.
How to appreciate sleep.
Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on UnsplashDo you remember that crazy period in your life when you coiled at the mention of taking a nap or going to bed. Your motto for life was, “Kinda work hard, and play really hard.” Well, you are about to regret every nap you ever gave up in your life. Your motto is about to become, “Work hard, play hard and cry over missed sleep.” Sleep is a precious commodity in college, but there just isn’t enough of it. Whoever learns to bottle up a nap and sell it will be rolling in the dough.
How to procrastinate productively.
Procrastination is something you did in high school because you were too busy attending ten different clubs and creating a killer resume for college. At college, procrastination happens because looking at that chemistry homework is just too sad and painful. So instead we become masters at productive procrastination. Doing other, easier homework, taking an extra nap, running to the gym, checking the dining hall for more pizza and calculating your current grade in a class are perfect ways to distract your mind from the sad reality of school without feeling completely guilty.
This was not an exhaustive list at all, but just a small insight into the many skills for which my college tuition has already paid. Many thanks to my parents who allowed me to learn these valuable life lessons; college really was worth the tuition money.
6 Unrealistic Expectations Society Has For Young Adults
Don't let the thesaurus-inspired vocabularies in our résumés fool you. We're actually just big kids.
Well over four feet tall and 100 pounds in weight, many of us "young adults" of the world still consider ourselves children. Big, working, college-attending, beer-drinking children. We may live on our own, know how to cook noodles, and occasionally use a planner, but don't be fooled; the youthful tendencies that reside within us still make their way into our daily lives. From choosing to stay up until 3:00 a.m. playing video games on a school night to going out in 30 degree weather without a coat, we still make decisions that our parents and grandparents would shake their heads at in disappointment. So why are we expected to know exactly how to be a wise, professional, sensible adult? It's not that we're irresponsible (for the most part, anyway). It's that we are young, inexperienced, and still have the sought-after, enthusiastic mentality that we can do and be whatever we want, which has not yet been tarnished by the reality of the world. These are just a few of the unrealistic expectations that society has for young adults.
"You should know exactly what career is right for your future by the time you're 18."
Eighteen? We just learned how to do laundry and effectively cut the crust off of our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but we're expected to decide on a lifelong career? There are people who are 50 years old who still don't know what they want to do with their lives.
"Save all your money."
Organizing and budgeting money is something that takes time to master. Saving every last dime is completely unrealistic. Many of us just made the switch from Piggy Bank to Citibank. Our financial priorities up to this point have been gas and food, not the thousands of dollars of debt we'll eventually be in.
"Get plenty of sleep and adjust to a regular sleep schedule."
Photo by David Clode on UnsplashWe're in college. We're busy. We'll be surviving off of caffeine and the 15 minute power naps we'll take between classes. Is it healthy? Probably not. But adjusting to busier schedules and a heavier workload takes time. Unfortunately, it's hard for us to accept that we can't take five hour naps after class like we did when we were younger.
"Make sure to eat healthy, balanced meals. Don't forget those fruits and vegetables."
Again, we're in college. We're poor. A not-so-healthy diet is the least of our problems. We'll be living off of Ramen noodles, Easy-Mac, and whatever free or discounted food we can get our hands on.
"Surround yourself with good, moral people."
College is a time that we'll meet and befriend a lot of people -- the good and the bad. Believe it or not, the drunk kid streaking in 20 degree weather all around campus actually has a 4.0 GPA and goes to church every week. We may not be best friends with the 'poster child' students, but we can assure you we will learn many lessons from them and make some pretty laughable memories in the process.
"Don't do anything stupid."
We're going to make mistakes. It's inevitable.
20 Reasons Why Pizza Is Basically Everyone's Best Friend
Seriously, who wouldn't love pizza?
There are a lot of foods in this world, but there is only one dish that stands above the rest: Pizza. If you're close to me or at least know who I am, then you know that I'm totally obsessed with pizza. It's one of my favorite things to eat and I will NEVER turn down a slice, even if it doesn't have my favorite toppings. There isn't a day that goes by where I'm not thinking about pizza. I even sleep with a pizza pillow every night! There are many reasons why pizza stands above all other foods, and here are just a couple reasons why.
Pizza is like a BFF
It's there for you and you're there for it. You're inseparable and it will literally never let you down. Ever.
It can be delivered right to your door!
You don't even have to change out of your PJs!
You can eat it at any time of the day
Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack time, midnight, you name it! It can be eaten whenever you like at any time you like!
It's there for you after a breakup
If you're like me, all you want after a breakup or heart break in general is a huge tub of ice-cream and an entire pizza.
It's the best party food
It's easy to serve, easy to order, and there's a type of pizza for everyone!
Celebrities love it too
Like J-Law. What more is there to say?
Everyone loves it!
And if they don't, they're wrong
Pizza doesn't care what you look like
It comes in all forms
Circle, square, Lunchables, pizza roles, the possibilities are endless!
It's the food that is always free at events
That big Freshman seminar you don't want to go to? Yeah, they're serving free pizza. Now do you want to go? The answer is yes.
It's always available
Have you ever gone somewhere where you didn't find at least one or two pizza chains or at least somewhere that sold pizza?
Two Words: Frozen Pizza
The frozen pizza was invented so that we can easily buy and make our own pizza at home when we don't want to spend a ton of money and need pizza in like 5 minutes.
You can customize it any way you want
want extra cheese? No cheese? Extra sauce? Flavored crust? You got it!
Going on a date and don't know what to eat? Pizza
Vegan? Vegetarian? Gluten Free?
Believe it or not, there's a pizza for that too
It's Delicious
All that sauce, garlic, and cheese, what ISN'T there to love?
Clean Up is easy
You don't need utensils, all you really need is a paper plate and some napkins. (or don't even use plate, just eat it right out of the box!)
Burned dinner? Order pizza
Haven't started dinner yet? Does the family hate dinner? Did you accidentally burn the food? Just order some pizza! Simple fix.
Pizza Apparel
Pizza earrings, headphones, T-shirts, shoes, room decor, they have pretty much everything out there! You can make your entire life revolve around pizza for real.
Just...Pizza.
But seriously, what more is there to say? The name just says it all
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