things I wish I knew about before I left for college...

Looking at the calendar, I realized that I'm heading off for college again in less than three weeks (WEEKS! Not months!).

Time sure goes by fast

To celebrate an upcoming semester I'm going to put up some of my nooby college mistakes/smart decisions of last semester to get me in the groove of the next one.

So some little tips for you soon-to-be-college students and use-to-be's maybe you'll agree with me here.

>>1. Room with someone you know... my preference is a good friend

I understand why someone would want to make new friends.. Or maybe you are afraid that living with your best friend could be a horrible idea because... you might be ripping each other's throats out by the end of the semester. I had that viewpoint at first. But last minute I teamed up with two close friends. It made a world of a difference! It's true I could visit my friends, but college living was easier to have friends to vent to... who really know me within the same apartment. You know? All my older college friends told me their experience of how they went out into the world alone and the stories of horrible roommates still haunt them. So I'm always grateful for my friends who even saw me at my worse still continue to love me for who I am. Now that is a good friend. I command you to room with such friend.

>>2. Location location location!!

I'm so glad I made the decision to not live in the dorms. Not saying the dorms are evil structures and to avoid the people living there at all costs, but many commended me for not living there right off the bat. I can't really say why they are bad.... I haven't lived there before! I just hear they are filled with crazy freshmen. I could believe that. Haha.

Moving on. Instead of dorms I invested into an off-campus apartment complex that is literally right across the street from campus. It was located closer than the dorms were! So living near campus is a huuuuuge plus. And I'm a few blocks away from a grocery store. Niiice.

>>3. A car is ideal but you can get around on foot/bike

It's true that a car made life easier. I didn't bring a car, but I had friends who did. It's convenient. Not necessary. Can you image if the car had issues? Buying parking permits? Accidents? Crashes? Gas money? The potential of hitting/running over a pedestrian? Not worth it. I live so close to campus and the stores that it wasn't needed. There were several kids that got around on bikes around campus. But for me, a walking student, having a bike zip past me is kind of... frightening. And there have been times where the biker ran into a walking student. Haha... just be careful if you decide to go the biking path of traveling

>>4. Don't pack extra junk

If you aren't sure if you are going to be using something the duration of the semester don't bring it. For example I brought my old journals. Really? It's like I'm asking my roommates to find them and read my old stuff. But they never found them. Along the same lines, I brought a few books for leisure reading. After the first few weeks I never had the time to bother. And I brought a bunch of other unnecessary things that I didn't even touch. The same goes for clothes. My senior roommate told me that through the semesters she noticed she packed a lesser amount of clothes each time. 

Bringing decorations is nice.. but if they take a lot of room in your boxes don't make an effort. Some pictures of friends and family do just nicely :)

Since we are on the subject of packing, don't pack in those cardboard boxes that are used for moving. Ok? Yes they are easy to store away under your bed but it can be a pain to tape them up. Just my preference.

>>5. Don't be an ambitious student the first semester

Don't be that one student with 15-16 credits and classes that start at 7:45 or 8:00am everyday.

For one, that is a hecka' a lot of homework. That is way too much work for a college student who hasn't even experienced a real college class. It's what I call a train wreck waiting to happen.

Second, your sleep schedule will be the death of you. I told my family this: you are not in control of your own sleep schedule at college. When you live with five other roommates who might want to stay up past 12am each night... that will keep you up. And my roommate Madi had 7:45 classes and she hated it. Nearing the end of the semester it was hard to keep up. She had to skip classes because of lack of sleep. The poor dear :(

Just trust me, not worth it. NOT worth it. Do 12-14 credits at first and classes that start the earliest at 9am. For my first semester all my classes were in the afternoon.. 12-6pm ranging. In some ways it was good but in other ways bad. I'm a huge night owl so I preferred it like that... it was nice to sleep in :) But with that schedule it was so hard to fit in time for homework. I either stayed up super late or had to fit in time in the morning.

Who knows I might do a part 2 of these tips. If I think of more

What I can guarantee is more posts about my past semester. All in celebration of the new one coming up!

I hope you had a great Easter like I did :)

Be daring,