Day 1: Nervous, Bordering on Astronomically Nervous

We have officially started the project Freshmen Assemble! Before I get into my topic for today, I want to thank Sophia from Ravens & Writing Desks and Ashtyn from Wonderland's Reader for helping me out with this, both by giving me suggestions for the project and agreeing to be a part of it. :) You guys are awesome!

Whatever your personality type, I think the thought of college always puts at least a twinge of nervousness in your stomach. It's normal. It's what happens when you enter a completely new and unfamiliar environment. AND those college-level classes.

I understand.

In fact, I am all sorts of nervous and keyed up because (at the time of the writing of this post) it's only three days until I move to a college two hours away from my home. I've never spent more than a night away from my family. My little sister is my best friend.

And now I'm kind of freaked out because I've been launched into the world of adulthood (which, let me tell you right now, NOT as awesome as they make it out to be :P) of money problems, jobs, banking accounts, and other terrifying things.

You didn't think the only thing I did was read books did you?

Hey, I'm not that awesome. ;)

But at the same time, it's kind of (or a lot) exciting, you know? Heading out to get a degree, make myself, define myself, be my own person, grow my wings. Whatever you want to call it.

College probably isn't the best place to make a huge resolutions list-- at least not in the first semester.

But going off to college just brings the whole "starting fresh", "new beginning" feel with it, and so, yeah, I'm making the list. Sue me. (Actually, no, please don't.)

The List

1. Continue blogging--60% reviewing, 40% other (hopefully). Even though it's a given that I won't be ableto dedicate as much time to blogging, I'm going to try as hard as I can to keep posts going up semi-regularly. Also, I'd love to do my first USA book giveaway in Freshman year. 

2. Write steadily for one book. I know it's going to be hard, but hopefully I can get in a few hundred words almost every day. :)

3. Learn the bare bones of a language just for fun! Honestly, this was inspired by a friend. 

4. Exercise more than never. 

5. Get ear piercings or dyed streaks in my hair. 

And, hey, I know you're probably didn't come here to find out what I want to do this school year (even though curiosity got the best of you). You want to know how to deal with the mess that is your stress levels and emotions as you prepare for college. 

Well, I'll get into more specific topics in the next post, but for today I'm going to give you some general pointers. I've gone through this and have been going through the same experience as you since Fall 2013 (because of those darn college and scholarship applications). I completely sympathize. 

And don't judge. I like lists. They literally have saved my life these past few months. 

1. Don't procrastinate. This is like my worst sin. But don't do it. I know that maybe you aren't looking forward to going to college so much as dreading the change. Or maybe you just CAN'T DEAL with deciding your future and picking a degree right now. Deadlines don't wait for anybody. You've got to make a decision or fill out those applications sometime and doing it on your own timing is better than being forced into a decision because of procrastination. 

2. Be organized. About as much as you can. (I just remembered my desk. Oops.) But besides those random sketches and magazines that you can never (or maybe you're really neat) keep straightened out, you won't regret keeping all your college-related papers together and divided into some sort of system. You're going to need to reference stuff. Trust me. Especially anything and everything related to Financial Aid. 

3. Make lists. (refer to where I said they have saved my life) Make hundreds, or some slightly more reasonable number, of lists. You're not going to remember everything because you're not a mutant (or are you? *narrows eyes suspiciously*).

4. Remember deadlines. There will most likely be many. Put them where you're most likely to remember them. Google Calendar has a setting where it will send alerts to your Gmail at a certain set time before the deadline. Write them on your calendar (the actual physical one that hangs on the wall). Put them on the notes app you have on your phone. PUT THEM EVERYWHERE. 

5. This is a time where you have to remember and learn a lot of things over a short period of time. Especially if you're doing most of this pre-College stuff without a lot of help from your parents. So take time to relax. Of course, you can't take weeks off of preparing for college, but take a day or a few hours to just forget all the stress and that huge to-do list. Binge watch a TV show that you love. Read a book you've been dying to read. You'll feel refreshed and so glad you took a breather. 

Now that I've overwhelmed you (or hopefully helped you out), I hope that you're liking Freshmen Assemble so far. :) Tomorrow I'm going to talk more about preparing for college, heading into more specific topics. It's gonna be a huge post. ;)

With that in mind, are there any questions that you'd like answered? Any areas that you would love pointers on? Curious about an aspect of getting ready to move to a college dorm? Any and all questions are completely welcome and I'll try to answer them as best I can. 

And remember to check out the rest of the Freshmen Assemble team's posts!