Update: Grades, Dorm DIY

Well, I feel like a failure. I haven't updated as much as I'd hope I would. Some big news:

1. I have decided not to transfer! Despite being far away from home I like it here so why not stay?
2. I declared! I'm going to become an Elementary Education teacher! Whoop- Whoop! I've been running for so long I think it finally caught up to me. Oh, well.
3. I am running for President of my schools College Democrats club! Super excited! I find out tomorrow if I win!
4. I am transportation coordinator for the all singing group I am part of. Nobody volunteered and why not add more stress to my stressful life, eh?
5. I host lots of parties on my floor. I want to stress I mean NON-alcoholic parties. I live on the Scholars Floor this year which has been the best thing to ever happen to me here. It's a dry floor. Anyway, I've hosted a cupcake making party, Halloween party and an upcoming Christmas party where I will teach the party-goers about Hanukkah! Maybe I am supposed to be be a teacher... haha! I celebrate both.

On to pictures!

DIY Dorm Style!

Up first is bedding!

I bought new  bedding from overstock.com all for under $50! I bought white sheets, a duvet cover (to cover my hot pink comforter), a throw and a yellow throw pillow (not shown). I must say I think it looks better, more grown up I guess. I was afraid of white but whatever stains happen from shoes etc. wash out when you put them in the wash on 'whites' with a Tide Pod. Kind of scary they come out though, it makes me wonder what is in those Tide Pods....

And here is a before and after of under my bed. It looks atrocious before and oh-so much better after! I bought 2 yards of white fabric from Amazon for a grand total of $6 (including shipping). I'm a lazy college student so I did nothing to it, I just shoved it between the bed base thing and mattress et voila!

Finally Redo your wall!

I put these pictures on my wall and while I did like them, they began curling over and not staying on the wall so well. I measured each picture for approximate size. Then I went to Walmart and bought classy, simple black frames for .97 each. I cut the pictures so they would fit and then popped them in the frames. I hung them with tacks. I know it's against the rules but our Professor of the hall said it was okay because we are part of the LLC (living learning community). Still not sure why that matters...

My wall now (I'd say it turned out nicely)

News, Life Changes, Funnies and Food

My College has a formal dance each year and this year the theme was the Great Gatsby. I went to dinner with friends before but here is a picture before all that:

I recently started writing a quote a week on a little chalkboard that I put on my desk. It makes me think and I see it everyday. I  think it's pretty awesome! I've also started doing a conscious random act of kindness a day. Whether it's holding the door for something, complimenting their outfit; last week I wrote an email to a professor so they knew how much I appreciate their class. It's a lot of fun and you feel better at the end of the day.

The Governors Race just concluded earlier this month in the lovely state of Virginia but when it was going on I spent a lot of time out volunteering (phone banking and canvassing) to get people out to vote! So I created what I titled 'snack packs'. Pretty much trail mix, healthy bar and candy bar in one container. Someone joked I could sell them and make a lot of money. Nice idea, but I'd rather just eat them. You can easily make them too!

I don't think this sign belongs here... it was a giant hole in the ground.

And that is what has been going on! I've been applying the book I read over the summer (and mentioned in a previous blog post) to all my studies and can say quite honestly it has helped a lot. I know my grades will be better each semester!

Back at School/ Not your Average Dorm Breakfast!

.... AND I'm back at school. I moved in almost two weeks ago and I've been super busy meeting with professors, decorating my dorm (it took well over a week for a poster I ordered to come. Over a WEEK!), hanging out with friends, etc.

I have a single this year (no roommate! Wahoo!). So I bought a roommate. His name is Burton and he is a Betta Fish. He lives happily on my desk in a 2.5 gallon tank with a filter, heater, plant and hiding place. I think he's a pretty lucky fish considering most bettas get stuck in a tiny bowl their whole lives.

I am on the 14 meal plan. Which means instead of 19 meals a week I get 14. That means I need to eat 5 meals in my dorm room. I gained 8 lbs freshman year. Not the 15 I read I was going to gain, but still. I lost it all over the summer by eating right and exercising every day (started with Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred). So I want to not gain 8 lbs this year and continue eating healthfully. I bought a fridge and stocked up on healthy foods and snacks and literally threw out unhealthy foods. Despite having my first class at 10:50 everyday I get up at 6:15 am and work out with a friend. We go to the gym do cardio abs and alternate arms and legs. If she weren't going, I wouldn't go. If you have a friend (which I am sure you do) make a plan to go to the gym every day! That way you have a friend who is waiting for you if you don't show up. Go!

Look at all that healthy food!! Carrots, sugar snap peas, blueberries, strawberries, smart balance butter, eggs, chobani snack yogurts! And in the door I have Horizon Chocolate milks. I keep healthy burritos in the freezer section along with frozen yogurt.

If you really don't want to go, ride the stationary bike and bring homework! I do every time I have a quiz or test that day just to refresh my memory! And I listen to an app with white noise so the gym music and people talking don't disrupt me.

For breakfast every morning I have an egg with fruit or GF Cheerios (I have Celiac Disease) with cut up apples and almond milk (or regular milk). Either strawberries, blue berries or apple. As you can see, I like taking pictures of food. 

And that is pretty much my life right now! All summed up with food, classes and exercise!

How to get Good Grades!

Why are you going to college? To learn! Well that and discover who you are, make friends, try new things, etc. Sometimes it feels like the classes and grades part is just the annoying side bit. But it's not. It's important to get good grades in college! I think I sometimes forgot that along the way... and would then remember... and forget. It was a nice pattern, but it needs to stop being a pattern starting this Fall! I bought a book on Amazon called 6 Days to Better Grades. It's by a professor I think. Anyway it is probably the best, most helpful book I could find about improving your grades! I bought a different one earlier and it was crappy. It was about basic stuff which let me tell you, you already know. This book was clearly designed to be like a class (pssst probably where the 6 days part comes in). You read each section, er day and the suggested supplemental readings (in the back of the book. I highly suggest reading them too!!). And then you magically know how to get better grades! I even looked forward to reading the book every day (and I am not some book loving person).

I know that college won't start back up again for another month and 9 days (yeah, I'm not counting how many days of freedom I have left or anything...) but I thought this semester had to be different. In high school I would always tell myself 'this year will be different'. Or 'this year I'll take harder classes.' But it never really came through that way. So I decided to get a head start! Because this time... I MEAN IT!

I bought the book and read it in about 10 days, I know, I know. It's called SIX days to better grades. But it's summer and I'm working at a cupcake shop. Give me some time!!

Then, when I was done reading I typed up all the notes I highlighted when reading that I thought were the most important to pound into my brain. I then printed them out, put each page in a clear plastic slip, and then stuck them all in a binder. Bam! Done! But not really... I look at the binder everyday. Every single day. I look at my schedule for homework, etc. Sometimes I swear my brain is trying to memorize it or something (that is not my goal by the way).

By looking at this schedule, you really won't learn much. The book explains everything and makes this so much clearer. Also! Do not be discouraged if you are looking at this and don't understand what is going on or you think it is too complicated. All I can stress is read the book (maybe your library has it!).


All in all this book is AMAZING. I was not paid to say that. If I was, someone would read this blog post and check and correct my grammar and spelling and punctuation. I can guarantee you not everything is spelled right or has the right punctuation. Bottom line: Buy the book. It's like $6. Think of that! That's like a dollar a day for a class. And as a result the classes you spend thousands of dollars on will thank you when you get better grades!


OTHER NON-BOOK RELATED TIPS!!!

Email your professors early in the summer (not too early like while you are still unpacking after getting home, but like July or June) and ask what books you'll be required to read. You can read them over the summer and re-read them again in the Fall. You'll have a great advantage. :)

Also! During the first week of school email your professors about meeting with them if you have ANY learning disabilities. I have a slight learning disability so I have a 504 plan (I get extra time taking tests, people can read questions out loud to me, if the class is over an hour I can get up and walk around {I never do that though, I would feel weird}). Meet with your professors about signing your sheet and get to know them (trust me, they want to know you). Even if you DON'T have a learning disability still make an effort to meet with your professors during the first or second week to get to know them, ask questions, etc.

FIRST YEAR OF COLLEGE IS OVER!!!!

Okay... so my first year of college is over! I am DONE with freshman year!! I have a TON of pictures to post and tips to share so bare with me. I have a table of contents because this is such a long post if you are looking for something more specific you can easily find it. :)

Table of Contents:
1. Tips and Things I Learned
2. Room Set-Up and Agreements with Roommate(s)
3. Budgeting Time and Keeping up with Homework
4. Food
5. Trips and Experiences
6. Mail and Packages
7. Pets
8. Roommate Problems etc.
9. Packing
10. Saying Goodbye for Four Months!!

Okay, here goes!!
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1. TIPS AND THINGS I LEARNED:

- You share everything including space. Girls from the upper floor lost their kitchen privileges and decided to come down to our floor to cook. They also stole my stuff to cook. It turned into me putting a lock on my cabinet, throwing the food they made into the trash and putting up what felt like dozens of sticky notes telling them to stop cooking in our kitchen before they actually stopped.
This also means you share the bathroom- stalls, showers, sinks. The showers generally accumulate lots of human hair. Its gross. I always cleaned mine out. I also got to know the cleaning woman which makes you want to keep things as clean as you can.
- Get to know your floor cleaning woman or man. I was on an all girls floor so we had a woman.
- Don't become best friends with your roommate. It will end badly. I will go into this more in 8.
- People will steal your stuff. I've had my kitchen stuff stolen so many times and then I had some bathroom stuff stolen. Not ok. Or fun.
- This isn't high school. If you were a loser or unpopular like me you will be fine. If you were popular, good luck. The world stops revolving around you. I saw a lot of girls who used to be popular in high school have a pretty tough time.
- Your dorm room is small. Don't bring everything from home. It won't fit.
- Weeknights try to get to bed around 11:00 pm if you have an 8:30. I didn't second semester, my first class was at noon but you can't sleep until 11:30 and quickly get ready. Be productive! I would wake up at 9:00 and get breakfast with one of my friends before she had her 10:40 class.
- Weekend nights stay up as late as you want as long as it is a reasonable time. Sometimes I would go to bed at 3:00 am which was fine because I could sleep in later.
- If you are a makeup and hair freak like me, realize you can't bring all your makeup and hair stuff to college. Pack a travel makeup case. I bought mine from Sephora. It's pretty big and roomy.
- Buy those Sterilite plastic drawer sets from Walmart to go under your bed.
- Speaking of your bed, either loft it or have it up to the highest rung for more storage space.
- If I relived my freshman year with the same roommate I would have lofted my bed. You need some 'you' space and I never had that. Which gets REALLY bad if things start getting rough.
- Buy a clip light for the foot or head of your bed which will clip onto the dorm bed and can be turned on when your roommate goes to bed but you are still awake.
- Be open minded about absolutely everything.

                              The lock on my cabinet in the kitchen (check to make sure this is allowed!)

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2. ROOM SET-UP AND AGREEMENTS WITH ROOMMATE(S)

Whether you think you and your roommate will be besties or not plan and sign the roommate agreement your RA (resident advisor- an upperclassman who lives in the hall and oversees stuff). Or create your own if your RA doesn't have one for you to sign to. Make sure you create it together!
Here is an example (you can use it):
- No boys spending the night.
- Keeping the room reasonably clean at all times.
- Split alone time in the room evenly. We each get one hour alone in the room each afternoon/ evening (plan when this time would happen before signing the contract).
- Don't use/ take the other person's stuff without express permission for the occasion.
Then sign it!
As far as setting up the room goes, its pretty easy just make sure you agree on where everything goes. My room only had one window. I thought we were going to share it but my roommate had other plans. A few months later we moved things around and I got the window. I tried to share but she took her stuff off the window sill.

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3. BUDGETING TIME AND KEEPING UP WITH HOMEWORK

This is difficult! I don't party. At all. Period. But plenty of my friends do. They had trouble at times keeping up with homework and planning their time accordingly to get it done. Your time becomes budgeted in college between four categories:
- Sleep
- Food
- Homework
- Friends
To some, friends take priority. However homework and sleep should. Well, and food, which becomes less important as exams approach. Also, as exams come up, food and friends blend into one. Your break from studying becomes eating food while hanging out with friends and yes, talking about exams. It is quite a dismal time on campus. There are quiet hours so you can't be insanely loud or anything.
Anyways, write down all homework that you have- when it is assigned! You also should then write a list of homework assignments you are going to tackle each day, so when you are assigned a huge paper or project at the beginning of a semester you can get it done bit by bit and when you get reminded the day before its due you aren't pulling an all nighter.

                                                        Page from my assignment book.



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4. FOOD

Commons food is good. In fact at my school it is so good that people from in town come out and eat it. However I love to cook so there are some times I will just cook with like three ingredients while I scavenge for more food. About once a month I have a ladies dinner where two of my best friends have dinner in my hall that I make. Its a ton of fun! They help and bring ingredients and we eat in my floors study room.

                                                             A Commons Dinner

                                                                    Frozen Yogurt!

                                                                    I made popovers!
                                             


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5. TRIPS AND EXPERIENCES

I went on two general field trips, one special one and one very very special one. I went on one in October that went to a farm. It was just fun. The other one was going to see the Dahli Lama and hear him talk. That was also in October and pretty amazing!
I volunteered my life in the fall for the Obama campaign and got to meet Joe Biden one day before the election. I met him and got to talk to him. Of course I cried. I am pathetic and fully aware. :)
And in January of course a small group of students (part of college democrats) went to the Inauguration. I go to school in a southern state so college republicans have a much larger following.
Take advantage of trips you can go on! It's always fun and a learning experience!

                                                                       At the farm!

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6. MAIL AND PACKAGES 

Getting anything in the mail from your family gets exciting! However one time I got to the mail room and had what felt like zillions of package slips. That. Was. Not. So. Much. Fun. Especially the carrying everything back. I thought I was going to cry. Anyway, ask for care packages from family members instead of birthday presents so you get a box of stuff with practical things. 

                                                         CRAZY amount of package slips!

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7. PETS

I am a pet lover. I LOVE PETS!!! At home we have a dog and I own a rabbit so of course I got the only thing I could have which was a fish. I got two goldfish. Make sure you check the schools website first to see what you can and can't have in your dorm room. A girl down the hall from me had a duck. Yes, your vision is working, I said a duck. However please, please, please have a plan if this animal lives longer than when you are going to be at college. I had a friend who would take it because she lived twenty minutes away, and my school has a program which will take your fish and find a new home for your scaly friend. DO NOT JUST FLUSH YOUR FISH WHEN THE YEAR ENDS. Both of my fish died before the school year ended. One I buried (illegally) and the other I flushed. There are all these rules about not burying a fish but I couldn't imagine flushing him. 

                                                      Pooh-Bear one of my goldfish.

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8. ROOMMATE PROBLEMS ETC.

My roommate and I started out as best friends. I think a lot of people expect that too. Then in January someone I felt close to back at home passed away. Keep in mind I am 700 miles away from home at school. I decided two days before her funeral I had to be home. I bought train tickets and told my roommate. Apparently that wasn't enough time for her so she started not liking me. I found out the last day I was at school she told our mutual friend she had felt that she was the 'last to know.' By the way that mutual friend was her ONLY friend (she is transferring to the school where her boyfriend goes which people should NEVER do, unless there are more reasons). After that I don't know what happened. She skyped her boyfriend all the time in the room so I had no time in the room and then she and her boyfriend would talk about me when I was in the room. Finally I wrote her a note about how we needed to talk. She became worse. I had a sort of emergency surgery in March and she was no help. I texted her and told her I was getting surgery and she didn't send anything back. She could have cared less if I died. At the end of the year I wanted closure so I left her a note saying it was if I didn't get the chance to say goodbye.... blah blah blah. I told her I was there if she ever needed anything. I got back to the room hoping to say goodbye in person but she left without any note, nothing. Absolutely nothing. And honestly, now that I am out of that situation I feel sorry for her. I feel sorry she has no friends but her boyfriend and that she didn't get closure from our horrible roommate situation. There were plenty of times I would call my mother and cry on the phone over what that girl did.

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9. PACKING

Packing is hard, tiring work. If you are anything like me you will procrastinate until all your exams are over and done. Then at that point you will need to bring in your three most trustworthy friends to pack and move things into the storage unit you rented (if you did). I personally hate when people touch my stuff, move it or do anything. However this is the point in life where you need to give up and allow others to help you. I didn't know what was going home or going into storage because I didn't do most of the final taping of boxes and zippering of bags. It wasn't until I got home that I found out what actually made it home. And despite my negative outlook my friends did an A+ job on getting everything done. I know for a fact I could not have done it or gotten to the airport without them. 

My closet before with everything......                         My closet emptied of everything......

                                                      The cleaning and packing process.....

My bed before..........                                                                 My bed after.....

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10. SAYING GOODBYE FOR FOUR MONTHS

This involves tears, smiles and lots of hugs. But thats when you know that you have good friends if you are crying when you say goodbye. Some of my friends I know I will be friends with forever. And just remember after your freshman year... forever has only just begun.

First Semester

Okay, so my first semester is over. And I want to be honest so I can say 2012 was one of the toughest years of my life. When my parents left I sat in my dorm room alone crying for hours.
So if I can offer a tip it would be after your parents leave have a plan to call another family member (mine was my aunt). We talked for an hour and I just talked. It helps you stop crying for a little while.
When I woke up I have never felt so alone in my life. I woke up and felt a pit in my stomach.
It seemed as though my family had ditched me. As if 18 years of my life had been a lie and they never really loved me. THAT was hard. And it wasn't true of course (my mother was bawling her eyes out saying goodbye). The first day with my roommate was extremely awkward. She was on her new tv that her mom bought and I was on my computer. Despite having emailed back and forth since March we were unable to have a conversation.

All that changed when I went on my preorientation trip. If your school has any sort of preorienttaion trip of any kind or possible a meeting in which you can meet other future students in your class GO!!! REALLY GO!!!! I've met some of my best friends through that group. The people in a preorientation group chose that group for a reason and you will quickly find you all have many things in common.

Classes are difficult. What can I say? Its a school years worth of information in a semester! But don't sweat it just stay on top of your work and don't procrastinate (easier said than done).

September was the hardest month. There were times I would be fine and suddenly be moody and want to be left alone. I wasn't really quite sure how I was feeling and lots of emotions were happening. I had an October break which I am EXTREMELY thankful for. Even if you can go home for a long (or regular) weekend in the fall do it!! It might seem harder to go back but you will be happy in the end. After fall break I went back and felt I had made the wrong choice of a school and was unsure why I was 700+ miles away from home. However as time crept towards Thanksgiving I knew I picked the right place. I started calling it home sometimes by accident. While I go back in a week and I am not too thrilled its hard to come home, get used to it and then ship yourself back on a plane back to school. But once your there you don't want to come home. Its a strange feeling.

I can tell you I was honestly scared to go home fall break. I didn't want home to have changed. I knew I changed, but did my home? We were a puzzle and maybe once I was gone they healed the puzzle to three pieces and I just didn't fit anymore. Not the case at all. Your bedroom may seem childish but you didn't miss anything. If anything your parents missed more of you than you missed of things happening in their lives. Trust me it will be okay!

If you have any questions please, please please don't hesitate to comment! :)