Going to college is a huge change from living at home with your parents. You are a full on adult, who has to take care of yourself. You will have to go grocery shopping. You have to get yourself out of bed. But on the flip side, you won’t have anyone to tell you what to do. So, you can practically do whatever you want (that is legal of course). Before you head off on your life changing experience, most college students would agree that you need to get the 12 items I listed below just to survive college.
Every person who goes to college, whether it’s in Alaska or California, will experience some heat. Some college dorms don’t even have air conditioning. Currently, I live in a house off campus in San Diego and we don’t have a heater or air conditioning. For about 5 months, I had to have 4 fans blasting all at once in my little room. The heat was awful but the fans helped me so much. It is literally helping me to survive college. Some people use fans just for white noise. Dorms can get very loud, so having a fan can drive some of the noise out. Even though it’s winter now, I can’t sleep without my fan on because I liked to hear some noise other than college kids screaming.
If fans can’t mask the noise for you, get yourself a pair of noise-canceling headphones or a white noise machine. If you get noise-canceling headphones, you can study whenever wherever. You can study in a coffee shop, library, dorm room, etc. These headphones can also play music to help you destress or meditate at bedtime. It is just an all around great thing to have! You can get a nice pair on Amazon for $50 to $100. Now, onto the white noise machines. This machine can play 10 different sounds and 10 different noise variations. You can get one from Amazon for about $50.
I absolutely would not be able to survive college even if I had every one of these items besides a coffee maker. If you have a morning class, you will need coffee to get you through the morning and/or day. If you have tests to study for and want to stay up late, you can grab a cup only steps a way. Also, this will help you save a lot of money. Colleges always have a coffee shop on campus and it’ll destroy your bank account so fast if you always go to it. You can buy a Keurig for $60.
This is another thing I live by. If you drink alcohol, you will want Liquid IV to avoid hangovers. Your friends may want you to go out 3 nights in a row and this will make it easier. Liquid IV’s are powders that you put in water that help you hydrate much faster than drinking a normal bottle of water. Even if you don’t drink, do you always feel better when you have had a lot of water? Well, drink one a day and you will feel ready to conquer your day. This will ensure you to survive college.
Having an umbrella is a life saver. If you have to walk across campus while it’s raining, you will want the umbrella to make sure you or your stuff doesn’t get soaked. You can get one for $20 off Amazon.
Flip flops in the shower are an absolute must. In dorms, you are sharing showers with a lot of people. You don’t know what they are doing in the shower. Public shower are the easiest place to get infections. I didn’t know it was possible but… yes, you can get infections through your feet. When people shower, they wash the infectious organisms off their skin and onto the floor.
College is a busy time. You may have a job, sorority, club, internship, and school. You will want to mark all of these down somewhere, so you don’t forget about anything like a big test coming up.
Instead of wasting money on packs of water bottles, get a water filter. This is a great device for people who are picky about what their water tastes like. This will make your water taste good and you won’t have to carry up water to your room.
In winter, a heated blanket is amazing. You may have a roommate that lights to sleep with the window open or a fan on. Heated blankets are different but one that I found had three heat settings. There was an auto-adjustment feature to maintain heat or to shut it off when it gets too hot. You can buy one off Amazon for $50.
Accidents happen all the time and it is good to be prepared. In college, it easy to get sick because you are around a lot of people all the time. You can put in some medicine for cold and flu into your first aid kit as well.
A soda maker is great for forcing you to drink more water. You can put different flavors, making drinking water absolutely delicious. Also, it is a healthy way to drink “soda.” If you don’;t drink enough water, you will notice a change in your skin, sleep, and health overall. You can buy a Sodastream for $60-70 from Amazon.
An amazon prime membership will definitely help you survive college. You might need a textbook by the next day and Amazon Prime will be able to deliver it that day to you. It is easier and cheaper to get outfits for themed parties. I can’t forget to mention that you can stream movies and tv shows with a membership.
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