It seems we have to say goodbye. All those days of lazing in the sun and reading a book by the pool, those unforgettable vacations and even that night you partied a little too hard and maybe wished you didn’t remember. Yep. You know what I am talking about. School starts in just a few weeks, and you should start preparing now so you don’t get caught off guard. The summer had to come to an end sometime. But think of all the fun new adventures you get to experience this year.
Read on to learn five things that can help you get back in the mood for school.
None of us want to say goodbye to summer. I mean, we didn’t have to go to lectures, read a textbook or take an exam for the last three months. Why would any of us want to go back? Also, a lot of students go back home for the summer. We see all of our old friends from our hometown, and we don’t like the idea of saying goodbye.
1. Focus on the Good Memories
“I focus on the good memories made the year before, and I anticipate the friends I get to reconnect with,” University of Chicago freshman Bekah Moon said.
Moon makes a good point. Try not to focus on what you’ll miss. Instead, focus on all the fun you get to have next year. After all, we don’t spend 100% of our time focused on academics. Sure, you have to say goodbye to your “summer” friends but don’t forget about all the fun you had last year with your “school” friends.
2. Get Yourself on a Schedule
What did your schedule look like this summer? I assume most of you didn’t set an alarm to wake up unless you had to. I know this because I wouldn’t either if I didn’t have to. About two weeks from now, some of you might have some 7 a.m. classes. The three months you just spent sleeping in probably won’t help when your 6:30 a.m. goes off. I’m going to take a wild guess and assume you probably didn’t have a set bedtime either, not that most of us students take our bedtimes seriously in the first place.
“The most difficult thing for me about going back to school is always my early classes. I usually travel all summer long, so my schedule is all messed up from being in different time zones,” Purdue University graduate Lauren Widel said.
It may be the time to put yourself on some sort of routine. Now, I don’t suggest you restrict yourself to waking up at 6:30 a.m. every morning and going to bed at 9 p.m., but maybe give yourself a two-hour window. Try to wake up between 8 and 10 a.m. and go to bed between 9 and 11 p.m. or something similar. This could make your life much easier when it comes to those early morning classes. Do you really want to drag yourself out of bed three days a week for the next two months?
3. Get Supplies
This is my absolute favorite part of getting ready to go back to school. I get so excited about all the new supplies I need for the upcoming year. Sometimes I go overboard, but hey, who doesn’t love color-coding their binders to match their notebooks? Or replacing that old backpack from last year? Even getting your textbooks early can be fun, especially if you can get the used ones before anyone else so you don’t have to pay full price.
“I hit the bookstore, and I get new folders, and I start organizing them, new pencils, new pens, really just getting the supplies ready, getting my backpack ready, even though it’s a few weeks ahead. I will start labeling my empty binders. I will label the pink one ‘psych 530,’ I will label the blue one ‘sociology 100’,” Widel said.
You can usually find the best deals for school supplies on Amazon (if you use the student discount through Prime). Also, most campus bookstores also offer discounts to students on school supplies. There are also really great deals on some brand-name backpacks, like a 40% discount off Nike through Student Beans and Adidas and Kate Spade (which can still be pretty pricey) through UNiDays that change weekly. So, get excited and get your school supplies early. Don’t forget to look out for some of these awesome deals.
4. Look at Your Schedule
Take a look at your schedule as soon as you can. Like I mentioned earlier, you could have classes that start at 7 a.m. Not all of us are morning people. If you are, then awesome, more power to you. But for those of you who don’t feel like waking up at 6:30 a.m. to drag yourself out of bed and attempt to stay awake for class, you may want to consider rethinking your schedule.
“I will look at my schedule, see what I need to do. I pop it up on the computer, see my first classes, think about, hmmm… am I gonna make it to that class? I think about each class, the timings, if I’m okay with the timings and if I do want to contact the university and switch timings,” Widel said.
Timing truly is everything. Before I attended school online, I lived off-campus at Purdue. Sometimes I had classes from 9 to 10 a.m., and my next class didn’t start until 12 p.m. I had to decide if I really wanted to sit on campus and do nothing for two hours or if it would be worth it to wait for the bus to take me to my car so I could drive home, just to come back an hour later. That would usually depend on if I had a friend who also happened to be waiting around campus at the same time. So don’t just check your own schedule. Check with your friends too. It helps to have someone to study with during those awkward two-hour breaks.
5. Go to Campus Early
The number one thing to get you in the mood for school is to actually be there. I remember a huge difference from my sophomore year to my junior year. Since I lived in the dorms my freshman year, I had to wait for my apartment complex to let me in about two days before school started. This didn’t give me much time to bond with my new roommates or even get settled before I had to rush off to class. Since I didn’t move my junior year, I was already on campus a month before school started, and not having to rush was such a relief.
“Hearing people around me start talking about classes going, ‘I’m taking this class.’ Literally, everyone around you is talking about school,” Widel said.
You have no choice but to start thinking about school when everyone around you seems to discuss nothing else. Also, if you have ever stayed on campus over the summer when you see campus go from almost no one to swarming with students, it puts you in the academic mood. Going to campus early also gives you the benefit of mapping out your classes. You already know you have to go from the Union on one side of campus to the Agriculture Building on the other in 30 minutes. Now may be a good time to map out that route.
