Friday Five: College Edition

Since I apparently gave myself a little summer vacation from blogging, I figured it would be appropriate to make this Friday Five back to school themed! Between being nostalgic (aka sad to have real life responsibilities) at the now dwindling "back on campus!" posts I've been seeing on social media and the slight hint of fall in the air, I thought I'd put together the top 5 things I learned in college. Also inspired from one of my favorite bloggers, Nicole, over on Pumps & Iron who recently did a similar post :) 

Make Your Assignments Fun. One of the best things I learned in college was when the opportunity was given, mold your assignments and projects into something enjoyable for yourself. Especially with a Communications major, we were given a lot of open-ended projects with a lot of room to be creative. I did an entire presentation on the Real Housewives of Orange County and wrote a 20+ page research paper on Ellen DeGeneres. I learned to be creative and stretch the boundaries a little which my professors really appreciated. Since I was working on something I enjoyed researching and learning more about, I ended up getting great grades and excelling in my classes. Plus, any paper where People Magazine is used as a legitimate reference is good in my book. 
Go Out On Weeknights.  I think my greatest memories from college come from Thursday nights and a little thing we UConn alums refer to as Nickel Night. Don't be afraid to go out on weeknights - in fact, DO IT. Because while I've had my share of fun weeknights post-college, more times than not I am in bed by 9pm and completely regret it the next morning if I went out the night before. Or stayed up past 10pm for that matter. So, enjoy it while you are somehow invincible to hangovers and ready to do it all over again in a few short hours.
Work Out. Staying active is way more popular now than it was when I was in school (a whole 3 years ago..), but I went from playing sports and going to the gym to not really working out my first semester, mostly because I was unfamiliar with the gym on campus. Don't be afraid to explore or take advantage of on-campus group classes. I definitely wish I took more advantage of the free classes, because those are completely unheard of anywhere else! 
Find Your Bridesmaids, Not Your Husband. This saying is so cheesy, but so true. I was talking to my best friend the other day, who I met in college, and were talking about how there have been so many weddings this summer and joking around saying we did something wrong where we didn't meet the loves of our lives in college. Luckily, we came to our senses rather quickly and came to the conclusion that we in fact did college right, and had so much fun spending every waking hour with our friends, which is something we would never get to do again. Don't worry about finding a guy, enjoy your time essentially being young and dumb ;)

Can you tell bodycon skirts with the thing to wear? 

Intern. I was fortunate enough to have three internships throughout college, and I started interning early - during sophomore year. There is no doubt that these internships helped me land a job right out of school. Take advantage of your school's resources as well as  your own resources and connections. Even if you end up interning in a field you realize you don't want to be in, you will learn professional skills, and help pave the road to figuring out what you do want to do! 
Well, that's enough of me thinking I'm wise and insightful. But it sure was fun going through old college pictures! I hope everyone has a great weekend, and thanks for reading!