As school is approaching all too quickly (less than a month for many students), I’ve had to begin collecting items for college. I am now a rising senior, and while that is super exciting, I have also had to evaluate the successes and mistakes I have made along the way. Here are some things I have learned along the way and how I prepare for each upcoming semester now.

1. Textbooks

Oh, the money we all too often dump down the drain to buy textbooks that we swear we’ll return to and scan through after we graduate. The truth is though, we probably won't return to use them anytime after we graduate. My recommendation: rent, rent, rent!

2. Pens

I might have a pen addiction. Alongside that, I am also a pen snob! I love my Pilot G2 pens in an epic way. One thing that I've learned about pens along my college journey is that we need to find pens that we love to write with and that write smoothly. It makes writing much more comfortable and can even help aid in causing less hand cramps. Everybody will have a different taste in pens, but I highly recommend finding a pen you absolutely love!

3. Calendar

Calendars are my life -- they are what get me through my day. Right now, I have two calendars running and up to date at all times: an electronic calendar in my phone and a paper calendar that I often carry with me. I propose that you get a calendar. At the beginning of the semester, go through all your syllabi and write down the dates and times EVERY single assignment is due. This will help you lower the possibility of having to pull an all-nighter because you forgot about an assignment due the next day.

4. Data Storage

The concept of data storage sounds completely silly, but when my laptop starting running extraordinarily slowly last fall, I cleaned almost all my data off my computer and put it on an external hard drive. A couple hours later, after everything had transferred, it was as though I had a brand new computer. It ran so quickly because it did not have extra data slowing it down! A USB Flash Drive will do a very similar thing, but has much less room for storage, so search for something with a lot of storage so that you can still easily access documents, but can also not keep them loaded on your computer at all times!

5. Chargers and Charging Stations

Welcome to our generation, a generation that struggles to disconnect for even five minutes. Due to this, my recommendation is to carry one charger for each of your electronics with you at all times, especially when in school, and to leave one charger in your dorm or apartment. By doing this, you eliminate the dead phone, dead computer, dead iPad syndrome. Charging stations are also great, especially in a dorm. Often, dorms will only have two to four outlets, so charging stations come in super handy when the outlets you have access to are limited.