The last month of school is always the biggest struggle to get through. With only two weeks left of normal life and classes, the last two seem like a major drag. From fun to finals, your work ethic is forced to go into overdrive in a matter of days as your social life winds down, and your study habits fail to kick in per usual. Of course, you're still trying to figure out your summer plans and how you'll manage to survive without all of your friends around you constantly. Although this period of time seems like it'll never end, there are ways to live it up to the fullest over your last month. Here are 10 ways that you can make the most of your last month of school.
1. Spend Time With Friends
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This one is quite obvious as you're going to spend time with your friends, but I mean it a little differently than you might think. It might be easy to go out with all of your friends on the weekends and drink or to get lunch or dinner with everyone once a week. However, spending time with your friends should mean much more than that. Try to see each of your friends individually to hang out, or get a meal one on one before school ends. This way, you'll feel like you spent quality time with each of your friends before splitting off for summer break.
2. Do What You Do To Have Fun
Everyone's version of this is different, so I don't exclusively mean drinking and going out to a party. Sometimes, this means a small get together with your close friends with some casual drinks, a girls night or something along these lines that helps you relax and enjoy yourself. School is the best and worst place to do this, but definitely make sure you have plenty of time for this in your last month. It's the perfect way to spend quality time with all of your friends, while also letting loose and not focusing on something as serious as finals and school work.
3. Sleep
Sleep is so important, so don't sacrifice it to get work done, stay out late or party too often. Occasionally, it's not such a bad thing, but during this last month, it'll be crucial to make sure you're sleeping enough so that you can be productive and enjoy yourself in between. There's nothing worse than being tired all of the time and not feeling like doing anything during a really crucial academic period. Most nights, you should try to sleep for at least seven or eight hours, so you're fully rested and ready to take on life.
4. Put Your Phone Down
Yes, technology is a cool invention that keeps us all connected in ways, but honestly, you end up missing so much of your life because you can't stop Snapchatting your friends. Make sure you spend time with your phone out of sight, so you can live in the moment, not through your phone screen. It's crucial that you spend as much time as you can absorbing your friends and your school atmosphere, so you don't miss out on it in the few weeks you have left. Make sure you're communicating with people face to face and not only through text message.
5. Study Hard
Yes, this last month does mean that you have finals coming up, so make sure that you spend plenty of time studying and preparing to take your exams. Your grades do still really matter, and even though a lot of your motivation is losing speed since you know summer is around the corner, continue to keep yourself going. Make a good playlist, set specific goals, make a good study schedule and stick to your basic finals habits to make sure you're well prepared and ready to tackle the final section of your year. You can finish strong, and make yourself proud with the final result.
6. Don't Save Things for Last Minute
We all know this well and have done it more times than we care to admit, but during this particular time in the semester, it's important to let that habit die quickly. Most final papers and projects are extremely time consuming, especially those 15-20 page papers or those 30 minute presentations that we still have to prepare. Don't save these things for the last minute and end up freaking out when you only have three hours to write 10 more pages. Spread your work out over the course of the month. If you already know you have a 15 page final paper and you have the prompt (or there isn't one), then go ahead, begin the writing process and get a head start before all of the work crashes down on you in one week.
7. Use Up The Rest Of Your Meal Plan
College food sucks mostly anywhere you go, but it is free and has a limit. Make sure you're using up all of your meal swipes that you have left on your account or else the rest of that money will go to waste for no reason, and you'll end up spending pointless money on groceries that you could somehow manage to spend in the school's cafeteria or cafe. Spend every lunch or breakfast for the rest of the semester eating something from your meal plan, throw in a few dinners just to change things up and make sure you're actually using up all of the money that you have on the plan. You'll hardly notice how bad the food is when you remember it's free and an expense you're not wasting on groceries or ordering your third pizza of the week.
8. Don't Stress Too Much
Yes, finals are a stressful time, as is the last month of school, so don't stress yourself out too much. Take lots of breaks, have lots of fun and enjoy the rest of your time at school before you freak yourself out and end up being miserable for the rest of your semester. There are plenty of ways to alleviate stress and avoid a panic attack during the last few weeks of school. Be smart about how you spend your time, and you will avoid this major problem.
9. Laugh, Cry But Most Laugh
The last month of school is definitely an emotional time. The happy times, the sad times and the frustrating times will definitely intensify over this course of time just because of the nature of the time period and the stress level that people are experiencing. Allow yourself to be emotional, and feel all of the things that come up instead of trying to suppress them. By forcing them down, you don't allow yourself to get upset or be happy during those times, and then the emotions will creep up on you when you least expect or want them to. Make sure you cry when you have to, but also have a good laugh at least once a day; after all, laughter is the best medicine out there.
10. Make Great Memories
These last few weeks of school will go by so fast, so don't let them slip away without having the best last month of school ever. There's still so much fun to be had, so many parties to attend, so much beer and wine to drink, so many emotions to feel and most of all, so many experiences to have. Don't let the small moments pass you by, and always remember to cherish everything you can before the year is over. During the summer, you'll miss school more than you might think, and just when you're forgetting what school is like, you'll pull out that memory of you and your roommate dancing in the bathroom while brushing your teeth. Save these memories, so you can think about them when you're staring at your computer screen during your internship this summer.
