As finals start to wind down and graduation looms closer most graduates will be reminiscing about the memories they had with their besties. The late night chats, the embarrassing moments, the day you met freshman year as you walked in a giant mass of people to the nearest frat party. But those girls and guys aren’t the only ones you’ll have to say goodbye to come graduation day; there’s also all those randoms you’ve met along the way that added a little spice to your college career.

The ones you see daily but NEVER talk to.
The ones that you share awkward smiles with when you see people take a tumble on an icy street.
The boy from your intro to Anthropology class that giggled with you whenever your teacher unintentionally said something funny.

These are the people you have taken for granted for the past four years and soon they’ll be out of your life forever. When you think about it – it being the fact that you have met so many people that you’ll never see again – it’s weird, right? So let’s take a moment to reflect on these randoms and give them the goodbye they deserve: Read More »

So…big day is almost here.

You ready for the real world?

What are your plans?

If you’re cringing at the very thought of these questions then there’s only one possible explanation: You too are a college senior. You too are caught between college and real life, trying to enjoy the time you have left at college while also trying to make plans for what comes next. You too are frustrated and upset, and unsure. But most importantly you too are badgered daily, no hourly, about all those post college plans. They want to know everything and they want to know it now. But you don’t even know the answers yourself so how can you answer their questions?

Well, lucky for you, I’ve compiled a list of answers for all those pesky questions you’re constantly being bombarded with. They may not be truthful and they may get you a few strange looks but they’ll definitely shut them up.

1. Do you have a job lined up yet?

Currently I’m mulling over a few different offers. MTV wants me on their new reality TV show. But I’m also really tempted by my acceptance to Harvard Law. Then again can Boston compare to that loft they promised me in Manhattan if I went to work for Donald Trump? Eh, maybe I’ll just finally accept Ryan Reynolds’ proposal and spend a few months honeymooning with him. What do you think I should do? Read More »

There are a lot of different illness associated with different times of the year. There’s flu season in the winter. Allergy season in the spring. Sunburns in the summer. But around early April and May a different disease starts to take hold, and it goes after a very specific group.

College seniors.

It’s serious and it spread quickly. But the problem is the symptoms can at first appear so subtle that college students may not even notice they have them. Their regular behavior is simply heightened. So when going about their normal, every day lives they don’t even realize that they’re actually struggling with senioritis. That’s why they can’t write that paper or concentrate in class. That’s why everything seems impossible. If  you’re a college senior and this, or any of the signs below sound familiar to you, you may be suffering from senioritis. (And no, we don’t recommend looking up your symptoms on WebMD. Just check out our senioritis bucket list instead.)

1. Oversleeping. Your alarm goes off so you press the snooze button. And then you press again. And then again. And then you glance at the clock and realize your class starts in five minutes…and then you roll over and go back to sleep. 

2. The desire to never do anything productive anything again. The other night, instead of watching the movie I was supposed to watch for class I spent the night watching the entire first season of Brothers and Sisters on Netflix instant play. It seemed like an excellent idea at the time.

Read More »

So here’s the deal.

I’m graduating in less than a month. And even though that means I have some pretty great things to look forward to it also means that I’m leaving behind a pretty good life and some pretty good friends. And that’s the reason I’ve been sporadically crying for weeks a little bit upsetting. So instead I’m going to try to look on the bright side. I’m graduating. There will be a celebration. There will be a party. And that means there will be gifts. (There are also a lot of other things to look forward to after graduation.)

And while most of these gifts won’t be nearly as great as the list I’ve compiled in my head (and rightly so), I still feel like sharing it with you ladies. Mostly because I just want to daydream about these awesome graduation presents, but also because maybe one of my relatives will find this article after winning the lottery and feel bad about getting me a crappy high school graduation present all those years ago and surprise me with one of them.

But anyway, back to the point. After day dreaming about my graduation celebration I’ve compiled a list of dream gifts. Not gifts I expect to get. Not gifts I think I should get, but gifts I wish I could get. And now I’m sharing them with you. Get ready to drool ladies.

1. MacBook Air
This one is actually pretty practical. For a long time now I’ve been a PC girl, or a Dell girl to be more precise. But after four years and more fried hard drives and/or motherboards than I care to admit, I think it’s time for a change. Now that I’m out of college I no longer have to worry about my papers being compatible with my teachers and I want to make the switch to a Mac, but not just any Mac, the MacBook Air. It’s tiny and portable, and so, so pretty.

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Balance is really a simple science: if you have a scale and you put a brick on one side and a feather on the other, the brick is hitting the floor. I learned that lesson long ago and try to apply it in my everyday life, even when I’m making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich; if I don’t spread my peanut butter evenly enough on my piece of bread, and lay it on too thick on one end, I can barely get through it without gagging or being completely repulsed by its sticky and overwhelming existence.

But let’s talk about balance in my real life, yes? I mean, I could talk about peanut butter and jelly for days but in this case, the peanut butter is me and I’m just trying to spread myself evenly against the Wonderbread of life. Whoa, did I just go there? Yup, I did. I compared my life to PB&J. And I’m totally OK with that.

Lately, I’ll be honest, I’ve been finding it excruciatingly difficult to balance my personal life and spread myself evenly across everything I feel I need to do. I understand I can’t be good at everything (I learned that when I auditioned for choir….), but when it comes to balancing what’s important in my post-grad life, do I have to have to pick only one of the five things I want to excel in? Read More »

To be honest, I don’t remember much from reading Charles Dickens’ book Great Expectations when I was in seventh grade, but I do remember being extremely scared. Seriously, that book gave me nightmares.  Was there a cemetery in the plot? Did someone abduct somebody? Did it even have anything to do with having ‘expectations?’ Or was that just a clever title twist in a book full of freaky shiz?  (Sidenote: Wow, I didn’t learn anything in seventh grade. How did I even get to college in the first place? Whatever, I’m going somewhere with this, I swear.)

Regardless of my lack of 7th grade education, this book landed softly in my mind recently and I got to thinking about expectations. In my life, I have an expectation timeline that goes a little something like this: With any given situation, my expectations are minimal during the beginning.  Once the situation hits halfway, my expectations usually skyrocket.  Take a relationship for example.  When I start talking to a guy I’m interested in I don’t expect a lot; I have fun, play carefree, play coy.  But once he starts to impress me and things progress, my expectations hit levels people could be offended by.  Suddenly, I’m waiting on him to kiss my feet and feed me mini chocolate chips and peanut butter with a baby spoon (What? Only my fantasy?) And the same story is true for all aspects of my life.

Except, since graduating college, my personal expectations have turned backwards. That’s right – as a post-grad, I expect too much out of every beginning.  I squeeze the shiz out of the orange before I can have a taste.  It’s awful.  I used to gain expectations through experience and now I have a ton of expectations before the experience.  Result:  I’m always disappointed. Read More »

You got this, girl.

Alright post-grads, future post-grads, and people who think they are post-grads but are really just thirty-years-old and clinging on to their blissful youth.  For some reason as a post-grad myself, I’ve found it easiest to write about things that depress me.  I guess I just like an excuse to indulge in brownie sundaes nightly. But the truth is, the post-grad life isn’t depressing!  In reality, it’s a beautiful time for all of us to open doors after some have been slammed in our faces.  Think about the power you obtain in that single movement!

But I digress.

When we leave college, we immediately assume we’ve lost so much. And by so much, I mean everything. I’ll be straight up honest with you: when I was in college, I was an annoying, cocky, lady-child (in the best way possible). I think it had something to do with the fact that while I was living the dream, napping intensely during the week, drinking until 3AM, getting in everywhere for free as long as I flashed someone my boobs student ID – basically living like a homeless celebrity – I felt as if nothing could get past me.

College was my own protective placenta of awesomeness; a slice of time when I could bask in everything that was working out for me (i.e. free food, a semi-careless attitude, eating whatever sat in front of me, not worrying about what anyone thought).  I know I’m completely sounding like a cocky a**hole, but college made me feel weirdly confident.  I felt like I could do anything, dream anything and, most importantly, see everything clearly.  Perhaps it was some evolved pair of college beer goggles, but I saw everything without any glitches, scratches or worries.  I knew that by the end of the semester I would have survived somehow and I could look forward to a fresh slate in January. Read More »

When I was a little girl and thought of growing up, I closed my eyes and saw a life full of prosperity. I saw a world where I could do what I loved most, play Barbies in my spare time, and make a lot of money being a veterinarian, curing boxes of adorable puppies on a daily basis.  Then when I turned thirteen and reality was a little clearer, Celine Dion proved to me I had the pipes to belt out ‘My Heart Will Go On’ until my heart (and those around me) would not go on any longer.  I knew that someday I would date Justin Timberlake because we were at the same place in our musical careers and we could understand each other.

When I graduated high school and Justin Timberlake started dating Cameron Diaz, I knew I had to pick an alternative life.  It took some time (and a few people cringing at the sound of my voice), but I soon realized I could not be the next pop artist. Instead, I would go to college and dig into its grab bag of opportunity.

I wanted to find out who and what I wanted to be.  And I had a four-year time crunch. Read More »

The following post is written by Josh Olson from UNC, one of our many friends at Uloop, a student powered marketplace. Read more great posts in their blog.

Straight from the dorm onto the street. This might seem to be the fate threatening college students graduating in our current economic doldrums. But there may be hope. There are methods for making yourself more appealing to potential employers. There are ways to manicure your resume; and there’s always the internship option. But you already knew that.

Here are some somewhat less conventional ways to avoid those unemployment lines after graduation. Read More »

Just last February, I was planning my 21^st birthday party. Now, I’m facing 22 (or as I like to call it 21+1) straight on. Even though the last twelve months have gone by, it feels like just yesterday I was indulging in jello shots and margaritas. For my 21st. Because just yesterday I was indulging in jello shots and margaritas.

Looking back, though, much has happened in the past year. It seems I’ve learned a lot while Ke$ha put a dollar sign in her name and started brushing her teeth with a “bottle of Jack,” John Mayer proclaimed that he is on the search for “the Joshua Tree of vaginas,” and the Jersey Shore became a national phenomenon.

So here (in no particular order) is what I know for certain after turning 21. Perhaps you youngsters can take a few things from this:

1. Friendships should make you happy — not pissed off : Friends should be so much more than people you dance on tables with and dish about the weekend to. They should be there for you, and you should be there for them. They also should not steal your alcohol on your 21^st birthday and make out with the fraternity guy, all while puking as your boyfriend helps take care of them.

2. Raincoats are amazing: They are often understated and overwhelmingly overlooked when it comes to fashion. But even if they aren’t fashionable, really, you can’t complain when that slicker keeps your from frizzing. Without a rain jacket I wouldn’t have made it through the summer in London. And I think it actually kept me going to class this past semester. Why didn’t I realize this sooner? It doesn’t matter if you have a basic from Lands End or a super sexy trench from Dillards, just get one!

3. Go to the gym: Surprisingly enough, it is worth your time. Who knew? I sure didn’t, until I started going religiously with my boyfriend back in September. If you actually go to the gym and do more than hang out on the treadmill and elliptical for thirty minutes, you can see results. Plus, it teaches you patience on so many different levels.

Read More »