Dear High school seniors,

Put the Pinterest packing lists away, before college I was just like you. Meticulously analyzing every single college packing list on Pinterest, but unfortunately by doing that I bought all the wrong things and none of the right things. Being five weeks away from successfully finishing my first year of college, these are the things I didn’t find on packing lists but wish I would have known to bring.

1.Fuzzy socks/warm blanket

Odds are you will probably be walking around the dorm a lot whether it is to get a soda from the vending machine, go to your friends room, or hang out in the multipurpose room and fuzzy socks are the answer to dirty dorm floors and not wanting to put on shoes. The blanket can be used for spontaneous movie nights with your friends.

2. A printer

If you only bring one thing off of this list to college, please make it a printer. When you finish a paper at 3:00 a.m. one of the worst things you will have to do is walk to the library to print it out. Bring your own so you don’t have to worry about this!

3. A 3 hole punch

It is weird but putting important papers into a binder rather than a folder makes organizing and studying for finals so much easier.

4. A Brita water pitcher

Staying healthy in college is so important. The freshmen 15 is very real and one way to help combat the effects is to drink water. Not only do Brita’s filter water, they save the environment by decreasing the amount of plastic bottles used and also are a lot cheaper.

5. An oven mitt

This is probably the strangest item on my list but is also one of the most versatile. You can use it in the community kitchen when you are baking cookies with your friends or girls can use it for beauty products such as flat irons or curlers to travel with when they are heated.

6. A light

The lighting in my dorm room is terrible so I bought a lamp at Target to put beside my bed so my eyes do not get drained when I have to read or work on homework because of the bad lighting.

7. A stool

Being 5’3 there are a lot of things I cannot reach, including my mailbox and the top of my closet shelf. A small, foldable stool solves this dilemma and allows me to reach certain things without having to ask for help.

8. Hand sanitizer

When it is flu season you will be grateful to keep hand sanitizer in your backpack at all times or at UK when they bring a camel for you to touch and you don’t have time to wash your hands.

9. A trinket from home

When I came to college I brought a clock from Germany where my parents are living. I look at it every day and it helps me whenever I am feeling homesick.

10. And of course duct tape

Because duct tape fixes everything

College is the greatest time of your life and a time to make new memories, so don’t bring everything in your room with you. Just take the essentials and get excited for one of the most exciting times of your life.

Good Luck!

Sincerely,

A soon to be freshmen year survivor