It is a hot July day. You are standing in the check out line at your local drugstore, a slouchy messenger bag over your shoulder and you are getting mad at the person who seems to take an eternity and a half to swipe a card and pay. Cell phone dead, you reach for a distraction. That distraction is a magazine featuring who’s who in the teen world.
You flip through the pages, and because it the season of returning to school, the pages are dedicated to “college essentials”. One of these inevitable features will have a list about things needed to bring to a dorm. It will contain the coolest coffee maker, the most wonderful vintage quilt, and desk accessories that are morte for show than actual usage. Year after year, there are some things that don’t go out of style, season, or necessity. However, these things cannot be bought in a store.
Below, are a few things that are recommended for college freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
1. A keen sense of resources –
Let’s face it – there’s a lot of things that go into college, and even that is an understatement within itself. There are books, finances, friends, roommates, security, your future, and everything else. It may be easy to Google search solutions, but a college experience tends to change the situational dilemmas. It is impossible to avoid any troubles or situations where you don’t know the answers. That’s where the internet comes in.
- This handy Tumblr post – If you have a Tumblr, this post is a great place to go . There are resources for finances, books, studying, and more.
- From the folks who brought you the classic SATs and AP Tests, comes a resource guide on colleges. This is especially helpful to rising freshmen. Personally, I have used this website to get information on my major and other things pertaining to university life.
And sometimes, what you’re looking for might not be on a website. The main idea is to not feel isolated when a dilemma or particualar situation comes up. All of us have problems, from Disney princesses to Beyoncé, but we all can take advantage of some of the great resources out there
2. This picture –
Okay, so I know when you fail a test, the last thing you want is to look at a picture of some stars (especially if you have failed an astronomy test), but this image always puts things into perspective.
At the end of the day, life goes on. You sit in the cafe of your local Starbucks and see the people walking by. You wonder why they have it so easy. Guess what? They’ve all had moments where they have felt the same way. Small moments don’t define you. There are going to moments in college (and life) where you feel as if you’re failing at life. Bad test scores, friends leaving you out, loneliness. This is not to say that you should keep your emotions bottled up like a Dasani. Stiffling your emotions is never a good thing, but a sense of perception and realization that you’re not a bad person because you “messed up” can maybe soften the blow.
3. Common Sense –
Wow, this is the hot item of the year that a lot of people don’t seem to take advantage of. It’s a staple in college essentials, but year after year. good ol’ common sense gets overlooked.
And for a disclaimer, I am not referring to your textbook defintion of common sense. The “don’t go out, you have a test tomorrow” or “missing too much class is bad for your grade” common sense. No, I’m talking about the other side of common sense.
I’m talking about….
- The common sense of not making quick decisions.
- Rooming with your best friend who you sometimes hate because you can swap Pinterest ideas for the greatest dorm room ever! If you fight, who cares? You have a DIY accessory chest you can cry to.
- Hanging out with people who you get into trouble with, treat you rotten, and are extnesions of what you were so excited to get rid of when you were in high school.
- Becoming too cocky with a test score and homework score that you feel like you don’t need a professor or student tutor’s help. There have been times where I thought I had written an A paper, only to talk to my professor and see A MILLION THINGS WRONG WITH IT. You is kind, you is smart, you is important, but you also shouldn’t rest on the feeling of being perfect.
Overthinking is not really what I’m trying to aim for. When faced with decisions, think of the cause and the effect, both immediate and not. A lot of your decisions on the fly will change this way.
4. That overarching source of positivity
This is a brand new time in your life. Here is your indepdence. You have your Seventeen maagzine dorm room accessories, pep talks, and college tips from a wonderful HerCampus team (wink wink). What do you do now?
You have to keep your head up. Don’t drown yourself with fake friends, prioblems that look small on the scheme of things, and negativity.
Find friends that allow you to be you. College is a time to decide who you want to be and how you want to live life. However, you shouldn’t change yourself just for the approval of a group. It’s not a good thing, and you will be miserable in the scheme of things.
This is not to say that you should hang out with people who are your exact twins. Find people that make you happy to be explorative soul and individual that you are.