The dreaded studying.

  Hi all! Sorry I'm a day late...things have gotten so hectic. Midterms and quizzes have approached without any warning leaving me little time to do anything. I'm currently doing this because I am procrastinating...BUT it was a topic that we have to talk about!

  So who here actually likes to study...If you raised your hand then I really admire you, however the rest of us dread it. I totally understand. College is a little crazier (I didn't believe it in hs, but it really is.) The pace is okay, but the information varies. Some professors want you to just study notes, some want you to just study the book and some want you to do both. The best thing to do is to ask your professor BEFORE the first test what the test material will contain. I made this mistake and totally messed up on my first test by studying the wrong thing...So here is your free pass! 

  Another thing is make sure you do study. I know we hate it, but don't wait until last minute to do it. It will just come back to haunt you. Making a schedule of classes,studying, friends, sleep, and other activities is the hardest thing about college. High school was easy to have a schedule; you were stuck there from 8-3 all day. Here its different. Breaks in between classes vary from 15 minutes to 6 hours. What do you do in that time? I have found out that the easiest thing is to try to keep that 8-3 schedule. Study and do classes all day and leave the night time to do whatever your heart pleases. Also, I try not to do homework on weekends. It allows you to be stress free, which is an excellent feeling! 

  My favorite part about studying is the adventure of finding where I'm going to study. Some people do better studying in hectic areas whereas others like it to be totally silent where you don't see friends wander by. Make sure you go on adventure the first week of school and pick out those fun, cozy spots where you plan to study!

  Here's a shout out to all my future Auburn attendees! If you like to study and see people you know and are okay with noise here are a few places to study: the student center and the first two or so floors of the library. As you go up in floors at the library, the quieter it gets. The 4th floor is the silent floor and you get mean stares even when you're a little noisy getting your materials out or type on a keyboard. Yes....sadly it is really that quiet. Also there is the Overall Company in Opelika if you want to go that far or if you want to stay in Auburn and go for coffee then I highly recommend Mamma Mochas. My favorite thing is that it is getting warmer, which means more studying places!! For the quieter people, like myself, there is the 4th floor in the library, the Shelby center (if you have a good engineering friend who has after-hour access), a cute little park called Town Creek at the end of South Gay Street, or anywhere that there is grass (Samford lawn in an eno is my favvvvvvv.) or Cater porch are a few wonderful, quiet places you can go to study. If you go to Church of the Highlands that's also a good place to study. 

  Like I said...we all hate studying, but it is a must. So make sure the first thing you do is find a schedule and a study spot and you should be set for a successful semester. Keep up with notes and chapters and homework and you should have less stress. Sadly I must go study myself...Currently curled up in a cozy corner in the student center with my headphones in. Happy studies my friends. Feel free to ask questions or leave any comments!

Roommates

Hi all! 

First of all I would like to thank you for reading this! I hope I will be able to help you. Today, as stated above, I will be writing about roommates.Some of you are going to room or house with your bffl while some of you are going to have a random roommate. Either way you kind of don't know what to expect so I'm going to clarify some expectations so you're not disappointed.

 Expectation #1: You'll see you roommate all the time.

This is a lie. A big lie. At the beginning of the semester you might see them often, but as it goes on it might seem as though you're living by yourself. There are 4 of us in the apartment and I hardly see any of them. They all are involved in other activities and they have different classes so it's difficult for your schedules to match up. Yes, you might try to hang out, but remember that they might have a test coming up or you have to attend a class meeting. Definitely make plans in advanced, but don't be disappointed when you move in together thinking you're going to bond and be together all the time. In dorms you will see them more often, don't worry. I'm not trying to tell you that you'll never see them! This was just a disappointment for me when I was expecting to hang out all the time, but now I'm used to it and overwhelmed by hanging out with other people, studying and other various activities. So I don't want you to feel the same way I did.

 Expectation #2: I already know my roomie and we're never gonna have drama.

L.O.L. There is going to be drama. It's inevitable. You might have practically lived at each other's house all summer long, but this is different. You will be going through different things and stress levels be going haywire and someone is going to be ticked off and then the yelling begins. Things aren't going to work out 100% of the time. If you do know your roommate make sure you do talk things out before hand so there is no confusion on what ticks you off or what you don't like. I had this problem at the beginning. One of my roommates did something that just really ticked me off, but they had no idea that it would so we ended up having an hour talk laying out what we expected from one another and that we needed to communicate to each other when something is wrong.

Side note: this is good for people who do or do not know their roommate. Talk things over, have rules, lay down the law. If you don't want them eating your food make sure you tell them. If you want to study ask them nicely not to have friends over late. But remember to compromise and respect what they have to say and what they want as well.

 Expectation #3: They are either going to be my best friend or worst enemy. 

This is true. There is no in between....especially in a dorm room. You will see them more often in a dorm, which gives you more time to either bond or become super annoyed. I've seen so many people become best friends with their roommates and I think that is the coolest thing! My sister-in-law's maid of honor was her freshman roommate! On the other hand my brother has had the worst of luck with roommates. One was super messy, another one snored super loud, the last one never heard his alarm go off so my brother was sitting there for 15 minutes about to go insane because it wouldn't go off. Ha, poor kid. If that does happen, just go and talk to your RA about swapping rooms at semester or try working something out. I haven't been on that one roommate website, but I heard that it does well with matching up people! 

The two biggest things I would have to recommend would be communication and compromise. Communicate what you would like and compromise with what they want. Help one another out! Tag team! My biggest thing is, "if you unload the dishwasher, I'll load it!" I'm too short to reach everything, so I make the taller ones put up the dishes ;) This works with cleaning, too. If you share food make sure you do this so you're not always the one buying milk. (milk goes fast in this house and it's expensive, so we all take turns buying it.)

Remember that it's not always going to be your way, but also remember that they are a person as well and they have feelings and expectations from you as well. Don't go psycho and be like: Don't eat my stuff. Don't touch my stuff. Don't bring people over late.

Make sure you suggest things nicely...it will go over better that way and they will probably be more willing to do what you ask of them. 

Good luck finding a roommate! Trust me, they can be the best..cause I have the best :) 

THANKS FOR READING! If you have any questions, comments, or have a recommendation on what I should write next week make sure you comment below!

xoxox,

Dayna

#1 Piece of Advice

Hey y'all!  

Hope winter isn't getting the best of you. We actually had a 'snow day' today...it turned out to be 50 degrees and beautiful! Where are you from? How has your winter been so far? I'd love to hear from you!

 One thing about going off to school is learning to make habits that will continue into your adult life. Church going should be one of those habits. So why not start now? You've probably grown up going to church with your parents and not really thinking twice about it. Now is the time to really be on your own and start making your own decisions. Try out different churches and find a good one to get involved with.

 Before college I talked to a few different people and the one piece of advice that kept coming up was "find a good church home."So far that has been the only thing that has kept me sane. I really believe that it is the #1 thing you should do when you get to college. Not only have I grown closer to God, but I have met GREAT friends that are helping me through school. It's a good way to meet people and it's also good to grow closer to God.

  I highly encourage you to find a good church home. It can only benefit you in the future. Even if you've never gone to church before, it's a great thing to start doing. Like I said before, you can find good, kind people that will help you, your walk with the Lord will improve and they also have fun events for you to attend! 

If you don't go to a church, please listen live to my church at http://live.churchofthehighlands.com/

Check it out! :) 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask! If you have any prayer requests I'd love to pray for you!

xoxox,

Dayna 

Welcome to college!

Hi friends!

My name is Dayna and I'm a freshman at Auburn University! I'm majoring in Special Education and am loving it. WAR EAGLE!

As I am stumbling through freshman year, I thought that I should make a blog about all the tips and adventures I've been through to help future college students be successful. So it's more of a College 101 blog.

So please stay tuned to see what I have to say :) Trust me...I have a lot to say. If you have any questions for me please let me know!

xoxoxo,

Dayna