Surviving and succeeding in college

        The way college drains the life out of you is indescribable. Believe me I wish I did not know. I am majoring in stem, more specifically the "e" in stem for engineering.  If any of you heard, it is pretty freaking hard but I don't want to come off as saying other degrees are not hard. I think what makes this process is not the hardness of the topics in classes itself, i think the issue is the professors and colleges. The way the classes are designed and given to students is very ineffective in the way that it is not focused on teaching anyone anything. I am not saying the professor should care whether the students are learning I am just saying that the classes should be optimized for learning. However todays' issue is not how to optimize the classes it is how to survive them when all the odds are against you. 

I have always been about showing minimal effort with high efficiency. Now, for classes with good lecturers this is easy. Just show up to class take notes even if they seem like "common sense" and if you pay attention the lecturer usually talks about the things they plan on asking in the midterms and finals multiple times. For this i draw and exclamation mark next to the talked subject. When going over the notes I make sure to go over them thoroughly. 

For classes that make not falling asleep impossible. Make friends. Not to use them but so you have someone to talk to about the class for the days you missed class  etc. and so you have someone to study with. This is what helped me to pass those extremely boring classes with bad lecturers. 

Miss Rory Gilmore is always right about school.

Plan and prioritize.  Before planning scheduling anything you should get a sense of the gravity of the things you are going to need to learn and rank them from most  important to least and then plan accordingly. Now if you have adhd like me this is even harder because of our time blindness the plans on the planner mean absolutely nothing. Except for being a nice distraction for the time you pass while doing the actual planning. Which is why I hate the way neurotypical people  will say "just stick to the plan" while in my head the plan is as tangible as fairies are. Which is exactly why you should just write the main goal for that day without saying stuff like wake up at 08.00, brush teeth at 08.15, basically, not time tables no other chores like washing the dishes nothing. Just the main goal like, summarize chapter 15 of microbiology. Just focus on getting this one thing done and it does not matter how you have done it as long as you did it.

Rest, I do not know how to tell you how important it is to rest. Not just physically but mentally too. This will slow down the general burn out through the semester or even prevent it. Go out for a coffee with your friend, go outside and move, catch a movie at the cinema, go shopping (if you are not broke unlike me), go swim, have a spa day and so on. As long as you do something different somewhere different then your room and where you study, you should be able to feel better. Do not forget to sleep, try sleeping for 9 hours, eat to fuel your body and mind, be selfish when it comes to resting. What I mean by being selfish is that you should prioritize resting when you are tired and/or drained. Do not try to help someone who is saying stuff like, i am so ugly , dumb, unlucky and i hate life. Because people that radiate this kind of energy will drain you out completely and nothing would have changed. Help those people when you have the energy to give not when you are already drained. This type of energy lowering people are one too many in colleges, and i do not blame them but they choose the way they behave ( obviously when it is not a mental health issue or something serious), they choose to be bitter about life and not better themselves. So do not drain yourself out anymore to help or please others and be selfish about resting and protecting your energy. 

Succeeding in college is dependent on your definition of success, but the most perceived success is by getting high scores and good internships. The getting high scores actually does not matter as much when getting a job rather it is important to maybe win a scholarship or acceptance for your masters degree. For this you should set a goal  according to the requirements for the scholarship or masters and always aim for that goal.

I personally agree with Harry Styles when he said "If you're happy doing  what you are doing, then nobody can tell you you're not successful". So the goal I aim for is just this, just being content and happy with my daily life and people i surround myself with.