Headphones in, door shut, Life is good!!! Or IS IT?

I'm sure that I am speaking for all of us when I write about what we would be rather doing without parental supervision in our very own dorm room? By a show of aye's who here would rather procrastinate hours and hours at a time instead of getting to work on that midterm coming up really soon? That's what I thought. We would ALL rather sit in front of the TV or computer all day chatting away on Facebook or MySpace but here's the thing. When you become a sophomore you are going to be buried in work, whether you take the "easy-A" classes or not. And trust me, those classes will get you nowhere. But on to the topic at hand; as college students most of us will live with roommates which can be the best thing to happen to you or the worst. I will give you advice on how to best keep on terms with you roommate and your time.

1. Be respectful to eachother; basically treat your roommate the way you want to be treated.

2.Set some ground rules when you FIRST meet eachother- I'm talking the moment you shake hands and introduce yourselves, start planning!!!

3.OK I doubt both of you will agree that going to bed at 9:00 p.m. and waking up at 6:00 a.m. will do wonders, you WILL have difficulty scheduling curfew when you both agree to it.

4. Another thing: You don't have to be best friends with your roommate but it sure would help if you were.

5. Most importantly, even though it is college, pretend like you are still living with family and act how you would act if you were. I know this sounds pretty dumb but I guarantee it will help.

Oh yeah and for the reasons I mentioned, #5 would probably the hardest one for most of you to follow.

OK now the biggest trouble for ALL college students. I've heard the phrase "but I never have enough time to have FUN!!!!!" so much. Well mathematically, you do; in fact if you include work, and sleep and anything NOT related to fun, you will have on average of 40-60 hours of free time per week, easily 2 days. Now here are my points for time management

1. Keep a journal and record daily events in it the night BEFORE; I mean it's not like it's set in stone(unless maybe you wrote it in pen and are squeamish to scribble it out because it looks ugly)

2. Talk with students or friends that have an easy routine of time management and form a study group with them.

3. This relates to #2 but don't form a study group if all you're going to do in it is talk about how good the latest episode of The Office was(It really is, and I highly reccomend it in your FREE TIME)

4. DON'T Think that free time means getting on your computer or on your TV and staying there for the rest of the night or day. You won't retain a thing of what you just learned if you do. Instead, finish studying, go out for a walk or jog, come back and continue working. Believe me it will get you LESS tired than if you sat down in front of the TV.

5. And of course remember for every 45 minutes of work you put in, take a 5-15 minute break.

Well, some of you may like this, and some of you may hate it, but it's that time of the year again. The time when we could be as far away from experiencing a summer as possible(well give or take a few weeks). I don't know about you but I actually have mixed feelings. College is the funnest experience I am having the pleasure of living through. OK maybe not entirely if you include all the work you have to put into it to pass classes with a good grade, but parties, and the thrill of being in college is a really good reason to earn a high quality education and have fun at the same time.

Now you may not have noticed but I said "earn" not "get" in my last sentence. Waking up at 7 a.m. to go to class is not fun unless of course the class interests you a lot, but I think it's safe to say that some of my audience is full of morning people too.

So to all of you high school students, and incoming college students remember to subscribe, and learn plenty of stories from me as well as other students sharing their experiences and learn why college will truly become the best years of your life.