The MBTA. What fond memories I have waiting way too long for an overly crowded train to pull into a smelly and grungy station. Although I've recently perfected the art form of getting to a station just in time for my train, below are 30 thoughts I have when the public transportation gods humble me and make me wait for the train.
If you're like me, then the last semester kicked your butt, big time. Lots of papers, projects, and overall chaos. While some things are beyond our control, there are some things you can do to make this semester one of your best ones yet!
Schedule, Schedule, Schedule
Perhaps the most crucial part of the semester is knowing what's going on. This can include projects deadlines, special events, visits home and whatever else you may have. A good idea is to make 2 calendars. First is a basic one with your classes, appointments, meetings, and whatever else. The second is the most important one. List out every day until the end of the semester and, when a teacher gives you an assignment, put it on that list. Sometimes you'll luck out and the teacher will give you all assignment due dates on the syllabus. Put them all in at the same time. It doesn't take too long and you'll thank yourself for it later.
Bonus tip: COLOR CODE. Give every class a color, then make sure to include schedule modifications (days off, registration days) as well as special events (such as concerts or shows).
There's nothing worse than not being able to see your friends because of classwork. Plan in some time to get dinner, froyo, or just hang out. This isn't a study session. It's a time to simply relax and enjoy your friends. Everybody needs some time to unwind and there's nothing that helps more than spending time with friends.
Talk to Your Professors
Contrary to popular belief, your professor won't get mad if you go to office hours. In fact, they'll be overjoyed. Can't make office hours? Talk to them and figure out an ideal time for both of you. If your professor isn't awesome and is a grouch about it, go talk to another professor in the department or the department head. While most professors are accommodating, there are a few that aren't. Talking to the department head should help with that.
Perhaps the greatest part of advice I've ever heard is that sometimes you need to cuddle up with some Ben&Jerry's and watch Netflix all night, and that's perfectly fine. Sometimes you need to relax for the night. As long as you aren't procrastinating a project, this is great. Have a treat, do whatever you do to relax and do it. Don't do it every weekend, but if you feel you need a break, take one!
I used to assist with a training course that helped aspiring leaders and the topic always came up of accomplishing goals. So, let's say you have a big project due on the day of the final. Your teacher told you about it on the first day of class and it's a huge project. The analogy I always use it how you would eat an elephant. Most people say that it's impossible and, when you see the project you will probably think so too. Instead, tackle it as you would the elephant: one bite at a time. Do little bits of the project every week so by the time it's due you haven't pulled three all-nighters. Take it in chunks and you'll thank yourself when it's due.
Keep an Eye on your School's Social Media or Calendar
Every so often there may be something that peaks your interest- a play, a free concert, a lecture, whatever it may be. If you can attend, do it. Most colleges will give free/reduced prices to enrolled students to plays and concerts. Find clubs at your school that are fun clubs- maybe they show movies on the weekend or put on concerts. These all help to break up the monotony of everyday life, plus they're fun!
Talk with your Adviser
Your adviser is great because they know what you need to graduate, which can be one of the most confusing things in your college career. Talk to them at least once per semester and make sure you're on track. They can help you with next semester's classes, as well as offer resources if you're struggling this semester. Never be afraid to admit what's troubling you in a class. If it's something they can help you with, they will. If it's not, they will find somebody who can.
Get Some Sleep
Sure, 2 AM is a really relaxing time to contemplate life, but don't do it all the time. Our bodies need sleep. Try to go to bed at a reasonable hour and make sure you set an alarm (a spare one too if you have a test that day!). A late night every once in a while is fine, but if you start pulling all-nighters all the time you will start to regret it and your grades will sink.
Hopefully, your school has excellent resources to help get you started in the career process. The real world is extremely daunting. Start off by making an appointment and figuring out what you need to do. Also, keep in mind that certain professions don't necessarily have internships or are a slightly different job application. Maybe your friends already have internships and you don't. That's perfectly natural. You go at your pace on your career path.
Eat Your Vegetables
Yes, I'm going to give you the lecture. But seriously, fruits and veggies give your body necessary nutrients. Eating junk food all the time won't be great for you. Try having a salad every once in a while, and not one of those that is filled with junk. Have a simple garden salad. Opt to have fruit for a snack instead of a whoopie pie. Your body will thank you and you will feel better than if you just ate junk food.
This goes along with the fruits and veggies lecture. If you're cooped up inside all day in class, then go back to your dorm, you miss out on the wonderful thing we call the outdoors. Fresh air is so wonderful for the body and you will thank yourself. Don't just open a window and think that's enough. Go outside and feel the air on your skin, breathe it in, and hear the sounds of campus. Once it's warmer weather outside, do your homework outside, play frisbee in the quad, and go for walks with friends.
And there you have it. Here's hoping that you survive this semester! (You will because you're awesome)
"So, usually I would never go on a Tinder date but when you are out with girlfriends and a hot Bosnian guy says he wants to hang with you and his friends, you oblige. We head to their apartment and when I realized I may pee my pants if I don't find a bathroom soon. I ask for the bathroom and a friend of my tinder date shows me to it and said in all seriousness that I was not allowed to flush the toilet under ANY circumstances. Having a few drinks--or five--I relieved myself to, nevertheless, flush the toilet. Within seconds, his bathroom was flooded and towels were laid out everywhere to catch the toilet water. To say the least, we were not invited back"
Buckaroo
"In freshman year of college, after a breakup, I decided to get a Tinder. After talking to this guy for a like week, he asked me to come to his rodeo where he was a bronco rider, a couple hours away. After making the distance, I found myself in a small town in Nebraska sitting in some dirty bleachers, thinking, 'Whatever. He could totally still be cool.' Then he walks up to me and in the thickest southern twang I have ever heard, says 'Hey Sweetheart, so glad ya made yer way down!" That is when I decided I would never go on a Tinder date without making a phone call first."
"Wing Woman"
"A couple weeks ago, I went on a Tinder date and brought along my best friend to be my "wing woman." My date decided he wanted my best friend over me so I third wheeled on my own date."
The Overeager Matcher
"I matched with this guy and we talked for a couple of days. Then, without warning, he showed up to my residence hall and told me once he was there. I didn't tell him where I lived. I told him I was out of town at the moment and proceeded to unmatch him."
"The guy bragged about how many beers he could drink when, clearly, he had never had alcohol in his life. Oh, and he was thirty minutes late. And as if that wasn't bad enough, he took me to a Taco Bell drive thru since we missed our dinner reservations, where he spilled his drink all over my dress, blamed ME for being in the way (which I wasn't) and didn't apologize! Needless to say, there was no second date, but he still watches all my snap stories."
Coffin Factory
"I drove half an hour away to meet this boy at 2 am out of boredom and he said he smoked weed so I was like cool. The address he gave me turned out to be a factory on an empty road. I got there and he was like, oh it's my dad's factory and I was sleeping in the office. Then asked if I wanted to go inside. I should mention it was a coffin factory at this point. I never got out of my car."
The Teacher's Assistant
"I was swiping through Tinder and matched with this guy. We talked for a few days and I knew he was a little older than me as his Tinder said 24 and I was 18. He asked if I wanted to get milkshakes and take a break from finals studying and I said yes. I got milkshakes and fries with him so we went back to his place and hooked up. I was telling my friends later and one of them said, wait, was his name Jake*? Apparently, he sounded like her hot interpretations of literature TA. I showed her some pictures and it was the SAME GUY. He was actually 34 with an ex wife and two kids."
I can confidently say that about 90 percent of all the friends I have are male. It's just always been that way since I was a kid. Over the years, I've heard a lot of things and I've learned a lot of things, and here it all is. Enjoy!
If you're a girl with a guy best friend you know that...
They talk to you like you're one of the guys, but you will NEVER EVER be included in "Bro" things
Because even though you were "one of the guys" just moments before, suddenly there is some sort of top secret information that would require some serious breaching of the "bro code" to let you in on, and we can't have that can we.
Even though you've heard the words, "Not you, a real girl" more times than you can count.
Here's just one example of this from my life:
Friend: I wish a girl would wear a dress for me.
Me: I can wear a dress next time we hang out.
Friend: Not you, a REAL girl.
You need to caption almost every picture with a disclaimer that you aren't dating...
However, almost every single comment will still be, "Are you two dating or something?"
But at the same time, you never know whether or not to be offended when they say they'd never date you...
Really, I will never know whether or not I'm offended every time they tell me this, but at the same time I don't want to date them either. You get it.
And your other friends are constantly telling you you were destined to be with each other.
They'll go as far as to write you a list of reasons if you don't believe them. It'll be a long, never ending list. Don't be fooled by this list though. YOU KNOW THE TRUTH.
You'd get all the girls if you were a boy because you walk them through how to get girls almost daily...
I'm not going to lie, I feel like I deserve all the credit for any girl any of my friends have successfully talked to.
That being said, you have an opinion on EVERY girl they show you, and you aren't afraid to share it...
These opinions are usually not good opinions, but it's OK, because it isn't like he's going to listen anyway.
But they have opinions too, and that's why they'll be the first to tell you when a guy isn't treating you right... and then they'll do exactly the same thing to some girl a few days later...
However, they will deny this a million times and they will never admit that it's anything like what said boy did to you.
And if they do happen to have a girl in their lives, she most likely hates you, because you know him better than she ever will...
This doesn't require anything more. It's just true.
But even after all that, you wouldn't trade them for the world.
You guys know who you are.
Share this with your guy best friend to show them how much you love them (:
With being a member of Greek life, you are going to come across people who HATE Greek life and who always want to say something negative towards it. If you're not a part of Greek life, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But maybe try and keep some of the not-so-nice comments to yourself.
1. "You pay for your friends."
If I “pay for my friends”, I sure as hell don’t pay enough. There is no price you can put on the friendships and bonds you form through Greek life.
2. "All you do is party."
Do you think I have time to just party when my schedule is jammed packed with extracurriculars, classes, and work? Think again.
3. "You guys all look the same."
Actually we don’t. We pride ourselves on being diverse, caring more about character rather than physical appearances.
4. "You don't actually care about your Philanthropy."
This one honestly might make me the most annoyed. Philanthropy is actually one of the main reasons some of us wanted to join, to begin with, and our events we host raise a ton of money to give back to those causes.
5. "Bigs and littles are stupid/annoying."
I'm sorry close friendships and happiness irritate you? Maybe focus on yourself some more.
6. "I would never want to be a part of that."
Once again, totally fine if you have no interest in joining Greek life whatsoever. But it's always kind of rude when you have someone reiterating over and over how much they would never ever associate with anything Greek life.
7. "You're wasting your money."
Just like how it's none of my business how you spend your money, it's not any of yours how I am spending mine.
I'm sure, like me, many of you received lots of gift cards over the holidays. After working retail seasonally, here are a few tips that I learned in order to make the employees at your favorite store just a little happier and not want to charge you extra on your purchase for being awful. Here are some times when you should be nicer to retail workers than you actually are!
1. When they go out of their way to help you.
Believe it or not, retail workers have more to do than just help customers. They have to fold tables, scan things into inventory, clean up sections, make sure everything is in the right place in the store, manage returns...you get the picture. So be grateful when an employee asks you if you need help finding anything, and reallybe grateful if they actually help you find it!
2. When they are cleaning up a section of the store.
Yes, they know the store is a mess. Yes, they are trying to work on it. No, they don't want you to complain about it. It's a never-ending job, and they are doing their best!
3. When they deal with your children being heathens.
There is nothing more irritating than screaming children tearing up and down aisles and knocking things off of shelves and racks, so please, be grateful that retail workers don't lose their minds over it, and don't complain to them that the store is a mess!
4. When they listen intently to your coupon problems.
Sorry, but I don't particularly care much if your Great Aunt Mary gave you that coupon and it's expired because your brother Charlie had a doctor's appointment and your kid Michelle had a soccer game so you couldn't make it to the store to go shopping in time. I can't do anything about it, I'm sorry about that.
5. When they ask you about opening a credit card or rewards card.
They know, not everyone wants one. It's OK. But they have to ask. You don't have to be mean about it! A simple "no, thank you" works just fine.
6. When you have to wait to get an item number or to talk to a manager.
Yes, I know you're irritated about it, but I can't help it if a tag was torn off of something and you have to wait a hot minute for someone to leave what they are doing, most likely walk across the store in search of your item, and then actually find it and bring it to me to scan. And I can't help that our register system has certain restrictions that only managers can access for what you want me to do (like take your expired coupons!).
All in all, I know some things about shopping are frustrating, but please remember, we understand too, and we have been on the other side of it. So I leave you with this lovely quote to remember the next time you are shopping:
"Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind, and the third is to be kind." — Henry James
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