College essentials for newbs

Since many of us are going back to school/college, I thought it would be fun to blog about my school essentials from someone whos been going to school for 19 years of his life XD (I dont count prek as school :p)

I have a degree and a certificate, and I've been to a Uni, community college, and state college so I got a pretty wide range of experience from living on campus, off campus housing, and commuting. Some of this may apply to highschool students!

Heres my top essentials for commuting, which is what I'm doing now :D

• CHARGERS! always have multiple chargers, i keep a set in my car and a set in my bag. I would be dead in the water without these! Also make sure to have a battery pack and a wallbrick as some older colleges may not have easy access to charging (like mine :P i color code all mine and put my name on them with a label maker with my phone number incase they get lost!) 
• A mouse! Hand cramps are no joke, its worth investing in a little cheap logitec mouse instead of using the laptop thumb pad. bonus points if bluetooth so you dont gotta carry a little USB dongle around at all times (plus theyre easy to lose!)
• ONE notebook. Having mutiple notebooks is a hassle and most work is on laptops these days. I personally prefer to take my notes on paper so i use a 5 subject notebook with pockets to store any paper I get back from my professors :) its much easier to manage and lighter than carrying 1000 billion different note books, and dont say youll just leave the ones you dont need home on certain days bc you WILL forget them
• TONS OF MECHANICAL PENCILS! sharpeners are a dying species in colleges, wooden pencils are a hassle bc you need a sharpener to bring around. Just get a multipack of mechanical ones and then refill on lead as needed! much better
• comfortable note taking pen/pencil. Invest in ONE good pen/pencil you will primarily use for labs/notes/etc I use a Hong Dian extra fine nib fountain pen with Hong Dian Peacock blue ink as my primary pen, it was 48 bucks and its extremely comfortable and will help prevent handcramps during lecture!
  
• Change of clothes. If you're commuting, keep a change of clothes and shoes in your car, I also keep a raincoat in my car just in case! being far from home and suddenly you get downpoured on is no fun when you gotta now sit in a 2 hr lecture in sopping wet clothes.
  
• Planner: ALWAYS have a planner, or a dedicated section in your notebook for keeping track of work. this can also be something on your laptop if you take notes on there. I use a school year planner that starts in July and goes to June. With the amount of papers, labs, and assigments you get its important to keep track of everything
• headphones/earbuds campus is loud, even the library has noise from keyboards clacking, its really important to have ways to block sound so you can focus on work
• BLOCK YOUR SCHEDULE SO YOU HAVE TIME TO EAT!! I always give a 2-3 hour pause in the middle of the day and between my classes so I can eat, get some work done, and go to office hours this time is when you will be most productive, no one likes doing work at home
• do not take that 8 am class, UNLESS.... you are a morning person or have no other option. If you like to sleep in DO NOT TAKE THE 8 AM CLASS, do not go in saying you're gonna "change your life up and wake up early." by week two you will be exhausted and done. I personally am a morning person so I take classes 8 am-1:30pm. But i also have a pet rabbit who wakes me at 4 am every day so :p it works
  
• NEVER buy from the college bookstore, its overpriced and the lines are always so long, just get the textbooks used off amazon :p I got both of mine for 150 bucks. Or use r/piracy to check out the free resources! not all books are on here ofc but I find many are :) sadly this semester mine were not