Books

One essential part of college are your text books. What you may not have been told, is that your books can be rather expensive! My semester, first year, of college I spend $850 on my textbooks! I later found on that I could have gone to HalfBooks.com and gotten them waaaaaay cheaper. The next year that I purchased my books, I used Halfbooks.com to buy all my books, rather than purchasing them at the college book store, and I only spent $300 on books. BIG difference, especially for a struggling college student. So for future reference, search around a bit before you buy your books. You can get used books that are in mint condition, for half or less of the price of it brand new in the store. You can use HalfBooks.com, Google, Amazon and more to search.

Freshman 5

Your Freshman year of college usually isn't the healthiest. Ever heard of the Freshman 5? Basically, the average Freshman gains 5 pounds during their first year. Why is this? The simple answer: The food they eat. Most students are not used to being on their own so they aren't sure how to cook nice meals or how to balance their nutrition. They end up eating out at fast food restaurants more often then they should, and since they are normally broke, they buy cheap foods. Unfortunatly, cheap foods like Ramen, Mac n Cheese, and hot dogs, are very healthy for you. So be wise and buy some healthy things like salads, fruits n veggies, and try to eat the proper things from the food pyrimad. If eating in the cafeteria, just pay attention to what you're picking out.

Facebook

If you haven't already noticed, social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter are getting huge!!! Businesses are beginning to spend more money on advertisements within these sites, and more and more people are starting to use these sites for communicating with friends. Having a Facebook is fun, and it's really good in establishing a large network, but you need to watch what you post. Companies are beginning to look at applicants Facebook pages to see how they "really are". If you post a bunch of pictures of you drinking, doing illegal things, or posting controversal things, you can lose out on a job opportunity. Be smart, and realize that you aren't the only person in the world with access to your page.

Final Post

As I write my final post, I want to sum up the best lessons that I have learned while in college. The first is that YOU are the only one you can rely on. Sure you have friends that have been with you through tough situations, but at the end of the day it's just you. You have to make your own decisions and depend on yourself. It's your life, so live it how you want. Second, partying with friends is a lot of fun, but you have to know how to balance your social life and school. Why pay to go to classes if you never go or you don't learn anything? Partying is fun now, but what are you going to do a few years down the road? Your friends are going to have their careers started and will be gone. You don't want to be stuck without an education and thousands of dollars in debt. So find a happy medium and think a little about your future.

The final, and most important lesson to me, is to always guard your heart. I believe everyone will get burned by someone they care about at least once in their life. It's inevitable, but not the end of the world. You need to take risks, meet new people, and learn from your experiences when you do get hurt. Everyone gets hurt, disappointed, and let down in their life. How you handle these downers will form who you are as a person. "What doesn't kill you will make you stronger". It doesn't get any truer than that.

Beer Before Liquor, You've Never Been Sicker

I'm sure you've all heard that familiar saying, "Beer before liquor, you've never been sicker. Liquor before beer and you're in the clear." Take this saying, and LISTEN TO IT! I can tell you from personal experience that if you start off drinking beer, and switch to shots or mixed drinks, you are NOT going to be feeling the greatest in the morning. Now does this mean you will ALWAYS get sick? NO. Does this mean that you can drink all the liquor you want and then switch to beer without any consequences? Absolutely not. It still comes down to moderation, but you have a much better chance of a hangover if you start with beer and switch to liquor. This previous Wednesday was a perfect example for me. I started the night out with a few Bud Light Limes, and then started slamming shots of 99 Berries, Malibu, and Tequila. Sure I was feeling good, but the morning after was not so great. I felt like I got hit by a bus, my head weighed a hundred pounds, and I puked up everything I ate or drank. It SUCKED. Now was this just because I had TOO much to drink? That was defiantly a factor. However, I've had nights where I've drank more liquor than that, and drank beer at the end of the night rather than the beginning, and I felt perfectly fine the next day. So it seems to me that this old wise tale is actually true. It may not be scientifically proven, but my experiences lead me to believe it is. I'll take my knowledge from my experiences over science any day.

Sick of Keystone and Coors Light? Get to know some good beer brands from the very opinionated, beer-enthusiast Eric Gilardi:

http://www.drinkdank.blogspot.com/

LCD Where You Cannot See

So we've all heard about the "date rape drug", right? I'm sure you're parents, teachers, and maybe even friends have warned you about it while at parties. But you think to yourself; it won't happen to me. That's the kind of thing that happens to "other" people. Well, if that's what you think, it's time to wise up. There are predators EVERYWHERE out there, just WAITING to slip a roofie into your drink. I used to think it'd never happen to me, or anyone I know, until this past December. Fortunately for me, I wasn't drugged, but my friend on the other hand was not so lucky. A group of friends and I went back to our home town for a party during Christmas Break. We are from a really small town, with a population of 888 people, so we didn't think anything bad could happen. After all, that only happens in big cities right? The night went pretty well, but a friend and I (who weren't drinking) didn't feel like staying so we went home for the night.

We found out the day after that one of the girls that went with us to the party went to the hospital that morning. We got a hold of her and asked her what was up and she told us that she woke up in her car, not knowing what happened the night before, and feeling really sick. We were thinking, ok whatever, you just drank too much. Typical night; no biggy. What she told us next shocked us: she went to the doctors and told them what happened, so they gave her a drug test. When the results came back they were positive for LSD; of which she has never in her life taken. She was shocked, appalled, and in disbelief. She wanted to know what happened that night so we talked to a few of the people who saw her that night. We found out that she had taken off all her clothes, and some guys were dragging her around the house, laughing the entire time. She had absolutely no recollection of it. Everyone that we talked to said she just "disappeared" and know one knew where she was for the remainder of the night. She still doesn't know what exactly happened to her that night, but she now knows to never, EVER, let her drink out of her site. I myself know that I've set my drink down on something and walked away for a little bit and came back and drank it. I won't ever do that again, this I know for sure, but it's just too bad something like this had to happen to open up our eyes. So don't be dumb and think it can't happen to you because it can. Would you rather chance it, or just hold your drink? Think about it.

Parking Tickets: Just Another Way to Rip Us Off

You wake up in the morning to the awful, shrill sound of your alarm clock, and you quickly slap on the snooze. You tell yourself you’re only going to close your eyes for another 2 minutes, and the next thing you know your alarm is going off again and you’ve been sleeping for 20 minutes. So you rush to get ready, stubbing your toe in the process. You run out to your car, slipping on ice and spilling your coffee all over your new white t-shirt. So you run back inside to change, growling to yourself along the way, and rush back out to your car. Despite your best efforts, you walk in late to class. You feel 100 eyes burning into you as you make your way to the back of the room, and take the only empty seat left. The guy you sit next to feels the need to talk to you and tell you his life story while you are attempting to pay attention and he just HAPPENS to have the worst breath you’ve ever smelt. I’m talking the kind that just lingers in the air and smells like rotting flesh, onions, and dog poop combined. Just your luck right? You’re thinking that nothing else could possibly go wrong, until you make it to your car at the end of your already long and miserable day. Sitting on your windshield, nicely tucked under your wipers, is a lime green envelope. You scoop it up and open it to find an $8 fine for parking too close to a crosswalk.

Really? A ticket for parking too close to a crosswalk? The curbs are covered in snow, so how the hell are you to know you aren’t supposed to park there? There aren’t any signs, nor are there any fire hydrants or anything around so it looked like a legit space to you. What harm are you causing by parking too close to a crosswalk? Like seriously; it’s just another way for the city to make money. La Crosse makes about $200,000 a year in parking tickets alone! And what are they doing with that money? They use it to pay the jerks that run around, slapping tickets on everyone and anyone’s cars for any particular reason they can think up at the time. RIDICULOUS. And paying for the tickets; extra ridiculous. You can’t mail in cash payments, so you can either waste a check (to write out a lousy $8), pay online and get charged an additional $3 (total bull****) or drive to the police station and pay at the counter. However, you can’t park in the parking lot or you’ll get yet another ticket, so you have to park on the street and walk a block or two to get there. Don’t be surprised if there is yet another ticket, for some ridiculous reason, on your windshield when you return to your vehicle. They hand those babies out like candy. My suggestion to future students, pay the $77 for a parking permit. By the end of the semester, you’ll have paid double that from all the parking tickets you’ll acquire.