Ah, college. I learned so many things inside of the classroom but I learned much more outside of the classroom. Much of what I have learned is through experience. I feel that my first year at college has been amazing and fostered lots of educational, but more importantly, personal growth. I hope to take these gems with me to make my next three years even better..or at least have somewhat of an idea of what to expect. Most of these are practical things that I have learned through trial and error. If we can do better with the practical, we might just make our lives a little easier.
1. Buy an extra set of sheets
This way you can change your sheets regularly even when you don't have time/energy to wash the originals.
2. Pick up your space for 10-20 minutes a day
This can prevent spending hours on a Sunday cleaning because there is no more room anywhere
3. As soon as you get low on shampoo/conditioner/lotion get more
You will run out a lot quicker than you might think
4. Snacks
Invest some money and space for granola bars, nuts, dry snacks that you can keep in your room. This helps prevent that late night hunger with no way to satiate it.
5. Desk space is important
If you keep one are of your room neat and tidy, make it your desk area. It makes it so much easier to work there and find your books
6. Don't lose your pens
I lost all my colored pens. Twice. It was sad and expensive.
7. Keep everything in its respective folder
Many times I thought, "Oh, I'll just put this in here for now." And then I later spent hours looking for that assignment because I forgot where I put it and it was not in the folder that corresponded to it's class.
8. Invest in a planner.. and use it.
You most certainly will NOT remember the 10,000 little things you have to do either, so write those down too.
9. Guard your headphones with your life
I don't think this needs an explanation.
10. A 25 minute workout is better than no workout
Some weeks are busy, hectic, and exhausting. Try to make it to the gym a few times nonetheless, even if it's just for a few minutes.
11. When it comes down to it, go to the lib
Most of the time its nice to sit in the coffee shop with all your friends and spend hours there, getting your homework done along the way. When you have a lot of work, a serious project, or a big test, it's probably best to plan to meet your friends for lunch and spend some hours in the lib. You'll be surprised at how much you can actually get done.
12. If theres a 20% chance of rain, toss the umbrella in your bag anyway
Always better safe than sorry.
13. The hardest part of getting up early is getting out of bed
It's not so different when you're up moving around and getting ready. The hardest part is forcing yourself out of bed. If you can do that, you'll be golden.
14. Don't shy away from spontaneous adventures
It's good to be organized and have a plan most of the time, but some of the best memories come from random adventures with your friends.
15. Do not spend all of your meals/ points on coffee within the first two months of the semester
For the love of all things good , I need to remember this last one.
