When you first move in to your dorm, it’s so empty, leaving you a million choices of where to set-up your stuff. You unpack strategically, putting everything in a place for a reason, promising to keep it just as neat as it is in that moment. About a week or two later, you can’t see the floor. Everything is everywhere, and you can’t find anything. Maybe you’re some neat freak and the thought alone of what I just said is giving you heart palpitations, or you know exactly what I’m talking about as you read this, sitting on a pile of clothes that you’ve shoved into a corner because the mess blocked you from your bed. Like me, you’re probably the latter, or else you wouldn’t have clicked on the link to read this. You’re not alone. Many collegiettes are thinking, “The floor represents this semester, and the mess is my life. My life is a mess, and I’m losing my sh*t.”
It’s October- The “Humpday” of the Semester
By now, you’ve gotten very comfortable and you know your way around, both geographically and manipulatively. You know which classes to show up to, which route you should take on your walk of shame to avoid people (the quad: rookie mistake), blah blah blah. You do the bare minimum just to get by, and you’re totally okay with that. This, my friend, is the mid-semester slump. Just like “tapping it back” and actually turning the knob only in the final moments of SoulCycle, taking a Snapchat of the sentence in white lights mounted on the wall behind the desk to add to your My Story on your way out, and wearing the overpriced workout apparel won’t give you a six-pack, putting no effort into your time spent at college won’t give you a true college experience either.
My dad used to always tell me when I got my mid-semester progress reports, every single year, digging yourself into a hole is easy, but climbing out of it is ten times harder.
It’s not until I realized I had to tell myself this to actually understand what that means.
1. Use midterms as a wake-up call.
For the most part, you’re probably sitting there realizing there’s more that you don’t know than you actually do. The semester may be halfway over, but there’s still another half left. Be a Brittney Spears in a world of Lindsay Lohans and Amanda Bynes (may she never delete her Twitter again).
2. Change up your routine a bit. Living the same day over and over again, week after week, gets boring, and what’s the fun in that?
You’ll be more motivated to go throughout your day with something new to look forward to.
3. Plan a long-term reward to keep you motivated, like a trip to visit a friend at another school or mini-cation. It will help prevent the days from blending together as one.
4. Spice up your calendar. If it looks unappealing, you’re less likely to actually do it!
5. Focus on things you CAN control. Getting caught up in something is distracting enough. Working to change the inevitable takes away from time and energy that could be spent on actually controlling something productive.
6. Reward yourself for something good, but don’t punish yourself for the bad. If something goes wrong, assess the problem and make a realistic, effective plan to improve it and prevent it from happening again. When you follow your updated plan, the reward will be so much greater!
7. Catch up with friends. Facebook-stalking to see how much better you’re doing than your class’ old prom queen at her school does NOT count. Surround yourself by people you would make the effort to see and whose company you enjoy.
8. Online shop! Whenever I order something (after it is deserved, of course), I try to forget about it. This way, when I receive it, it’s like a little gift from me to myself. I also select gift wrap…
9. Keep in mind why you’re here. Chances are, you still want roughly the same thing as you did when you started the schoolyear. Look further into what you want and figure out what you need to do in order to get your dream job. Drake started from the bottom and look where he is.
10. Keep a neat room and make your bed. Once you start to lose your sh*t, you literally will start to lose your sh*t.
College is only four short years, which leaves little to no time not to love it. Before you know it, you’ll be back at home, depending on the local yentas’ weekly mahjong game for your gossip fix, provided by your mother.
Make the most of it!