The beginning of every semester is both a magical and anxiety-inducing time. On the one hand, we all come back from break feeling less bogged down than when we left, charged up on Netflix time and sleep and ready (or at least somewhat ready) to see friends and get back into a routine that doesn’t involve sleeping in until 12 pm every day. As with each phase of college life, it can be hard to see the good in things when you’re having to wake up at 8 am for an 8:30 am class and you have to go up and down the Rabb steps three times in a day. However, we’re only here for four years and I personally don’t want to look back on my time in college as a fog of overly-caffeinated stress. Here are some tips for making the most of the first few weeks of the semester:
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Spend time with friends before the assignments start rolling in. Do things you wouldn’t normally do! Go into Boston or Waltham! Not only that, but enjoy these moments with friends before your brain is consumed by essays and exams.
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Clean/organize your room. Start the semester with an at least somewhat clean room. It can make you feel like you have a semblance of your shit together!
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Write down all of your assignments for the semester in your planner/google calendar. Trust me, you’ll regret not doing this when you realize that you have a paper due tomorrow and had no idea.
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Write down the routine that you’d like to have for your schedule. If you have morning classes, this could mean making sure to grab a bagel before class or deciding on a good time for you to wake up in order to make it to class and not feel rushed. If you have afternoon classes, find a morning routine that works for you so you can have some structure in your am. Setting good habits at the beginning of the semester means that hopefully, they’ll stick around until at least midterm season!
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Reach out to people that you wish you’d hung out with more last semester! There are always those people that you meet and click with but then never follow up with, but you don’t have to let them slip through your fingers! Text that person you sat next to in class all of last semester to get lunch or dinner because chances are you’ll end up regretting it if you don’t.