1. Find your own study space.

I didn’t truly understand how much I love the silence of the library until last week when my roommate forced me to go study with her. As I live in a McCandless double, I have a study carroll across the hall from my room and I absolutely hate it. It’s dark, too quiet in there, too loud in the hallway, and overall uncomfortable. The library has the perfect amount of quiet and I’ve come to enjoy the atmosphere of it. And the free hot chocolate. Definitely that too.

2. Find your own best way to study.

In my case, it’s Quizlet. I love the flashcards and the review games on the site. I made my dad buy me a 3-year Quizlet Plus subscription my junior year when I was struggling to memorize chemical formulas and equations for my Advanced Chemistry class. It’s the best purchase I’ve ever pressured my dad into and I completely forgot about how much I love Quizlet until a month ago. I’m currently utilizing it to study Spanish vocab and reflexive verbs and I’m confident that it’ll help me do much better on my Spanish final because of how much I know it helped me in high school.

3. Always carry your chargers.

I love technology and can’t go an hour without being on my phone or computer. My MacBook Pro is great at holding a charge, but my iPhone 5c isn’t. The best purchase I ever made in terms of chargers was buying a Mophie portable charger. It was $80, but it works so much better than the five other $10 ones that I’ve bought. It can charge my phone completely two and a half times on a single charge. Also, buy extra chargers and USB plug-ins and carry at least one with you.

4. Make a first-aid kit and take preventative measures to stay healthy.

Three weeks before school began, I had major surgery and got a minor – and apparently common – infection a month into school. I freaked out and when I couldn’t call my parents or my surgeon (because it was 10:30 pm on a weeknight back at home and no one would pick up), and I made my friends go to CVS with me. I stupidly tried to solve an infection with bacitracin ointment and Airborne to boost my immune system. Long story short, call your surgeon often to check up and stock up on Band-Aids, antibiotic ointment, Airborne, Emergen-C, vitamin B-12, Tylenol, ibuprofen, Advil, Aleve, and anything else you might need.

5. Utilize multiple alarm clocks.

I’m a first semester freshman and have already slept through a few classes this semester. Yay me! I’m a grandma when it comes to my bedtime, yet I love to stay up late and never want to wake up in the morning. My phone is so old that the alarm clock only works half the time. A month into school, I bought an alarm clock that sits under your pillow and vibrates to wake you up. I use that combined with my phone, my roommate’s alarm clock, and my Fitbit alarm (if I remember). You can never have too many alarms when attendance is part of your final grade!

6. Smartly organize your closet.

The McCandless closets come with two hanging rods, a built-in set of drawers, and four shelves. Use thin felt hangers to maximize your rod space. Get a shoe rack to put on the floor of your closet and occupy that floor space. Put your boot boxes on the top shelf of your closet so that they’re out of the way until the snow hits South Bend. Get fabric bins to put on the other three shelves and store your purses, scarves, hats, gloves, and even a toolkit in them! I still haven’t filled up both hanging rods in my closet so I added a stack of 3 plastic drawers above the built-in shelves and below the unused hanging rod. Start with the basics of hanging up your clothes and putting them in drawers and then determine what you need to fill your closet with.

7. Stock up on supplies and then, if you think you have enough to get you through the semester, buy more.

I regret not buying more tampons, body wash, deodorant, laundry detergent, and snacks while I was at home because now I constantly worry about running out. Find a spot in your room and make your own stockpile to keep you running until the end of the semester. One day I aspire to be like those people on 'Extreme Couponing' with my stockpile. Pro tip: You can never have enough tampons, shampoo, body wash, deodorant, dry shampoo, laundry detergent, color catcher sheets, tissues, medicine, hair ties, or makeup wipes. Also, buy multiple bottles of in-wash scent booster. I use Gain Flings as my detergent so I pair those with Gain Fireworks. You’ll thank me later, because the McCandless washing machines smell like a skunk. No joke.

8. Invest in a good pair of headphones and find a good studying playlist.

When I leave for class, I never leave without earbuds for my phone. When I get ready to study, I never leave my room without my Beats. Yes, they’re crazy expensive, but I’ve found that they work the best for me at tuning everything out – my parents included when they first bought them for me. I should probably listen to all the experts when they say don’t study to music with lyrics, but I just listen to whatever motivates me to work and that’s usually something on Pandora or Spotify with lyrics. I’ve found that if I like the music I’m listening to, then I’m much more likely to keep going and get my work done.

9. Buy cleaning supplies and clean your room.

My room at home is an absolute mess. I kid you not, there’s still crap on the floor from the mess I made before moving to South Bend back in August. I hate living in a mess, but my life is just a mess, so I made myself a promise that when starting over with a new room in South Bend, I’d keep it clean. I bought a small Dirt Devil for $25 on Amazon, a Swiffer with wet and dry pads, 5 packs of Clorox wipes, Glade, Febreeze, and disinfectant spray. Although my room is a bit messy right now (it’s finals week so no judgment!), I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping my room clean and disinfected this year. There’s nothing better than coming home to a clean room and not worrying about cleaning up a mess. And when my room is a mess, I’ve found that cleaning helps destress when I turn on some music and get into it!

10. Do your laundry in the middle of the night or in the middle of the day.

I promise you I’m not crazy. I love to sleep as much as the next person, but there are just those nights where you can’t help but stay up past midnight. On nights like those, I take a break from homework and throw my laundry in the wash. At the beginning of the year, I thought Sunday would be the best day to do laundry. Apparently, every other freshman girl thinks this too. I found that the laundry room is generally empty in the middle of the night and I use this to my advantage. Also, use Shout Color Catcher sheets to mix loads of different colors and get your laundry done faster and with fewer loads.

11. Consolidate your laundry supplies.

As a general rule of thumb, use 1 detergent pod, 1 capful of fabric softener, 1 capful of stain fighter (like Clorox 2), 2 color catcher sheets, and 2 capfuls of in-wash scent booster beads for each load of laundry. I bought 2 mini laundry bottles from the Dollar Tree – one Downy and one Tide – that I emptied out and filled up with the fabric softener I use and the stain remover I use so I don’t have to carry my big bottles to the laundry room each time I do a load. I’ve found the best way to carry those mini bottles, a few detergent pods, a few color catcher sheets, and my bottle of scent beads is in a small fabric bin that I restock after each load.

12. You will make friends.

Don't worry about making friends because they'll come into your life in their own way. I met most of my best friends through the SMC Class of 2020 GroupMe and that's okay. I've met others through classes or just small conversations in the hallway of McCandless 4 South. It may take a little bit before you find your niche, but you will find your group and where you belong in due time.

13. Take time for yourself.

You’re in college to get an education, but don’t forget to take a break and focus on yourself. While college is a place to learn and experience the adult world, it’s also a place for you to learn more about yourself and the new world around you as a young adult.

14. Don’t forget to have fun.

School should be one of your top priorities – you are paying thousands of dollars for a degree – but do something fun every once in a while. Don’t be afraid to go out one night or take a break and stay in and watch a movie with your girlfriends. My friends and I find a ridiculous amount of joy in taking an Uber to Target and spending an hour running around the store before finally buying the one thing we went there to pick up and the 17 other items we most definitely did not need. Find what makes you happy and have fun. After all, having fun and making new experiences is what college is all about.