M.E.'s College Essentials.

Where has the time gone? It's already August and summer has flown by. Felt like just yesterday I was itching in the library to be done with finals and start my summer adventures. Now, I'm sitting here ordering my books online and making sure my schedule is perfect before I start on the 27th. I'm excited for this coming school year but sad that my lazy days of reading for hours outside with my puppy at my side will now be taken over by hours at the library and getting ready for graduation in the spring. 

For many of you, this is your first year of college and I would like to say CONGRATULATIONS! Cherish every moment of it because the next thing you know, you blink your eyes and it's senior year. Word of advice? Take your camera everywhere with you. The memories you make in college will last you your entire life time. For others, you are on the same boat as I am. Senior year (round 2 for moi) and somehow it doesn't seem to get much easier on the work load but you have learned to manage your time wisely so that you never miss an important assignment, a football game or happy hour with your friends. I have never been so organized in my life until college which will definitely work in my favor even when I'm done with school. 

So, I wanted to share with my little babies, my fellow seniors, and all you darlings in between my essentials for the College classroom.

1. I cannot live with out my Longchamp bag. At my school, it's kind of a cliché to wear one of these. All the girls have them which annoys me but this bag is my life saver. It's the perfect size and extremely sturdy. I can carry an elephant in this thing and the fabric is great for when my klutzy self spills coffee everywhere. Cleans up well.

2. You can't be a college student without a laptop. I know they are expensive but buying your own will save you so many headaches and Apple is great with college student discounts on pretty much all their products and if you buy a new laptop this Fall they offer an a hundred dollar gift card that you can use towards any of their products. Woo hoo.

3. COFFEE. My life-saver. Can't get through my day without it so I like to bring my own tumbler. I love these from Starbucks because they are 20 fl oz but they are light and slender so they fit really well in my bag without taking up a lot of space.

4. I'm a little obsessed with Starbucks, I know. But I signed up for their membership card which has some really great benefits. Collect 15 stars on your card, get a free coffee! Yay! Want an extra shot? or 5? and maybe some soy milk with that latte? It's free when you use your card. Double yay! You can go to starbucks.com and sign up for your own. Plus it's pretty snazy having a gold card with your name on it.

5. Highlighters and pens. Well this one's pretty obvious, I know, but I have tried many different types of highlighters and pens. My favorite highlighters are from Bic because they glide really well without being super saturated and smudge the least. For pens, I prefer Pilot G2 with an Ultra Fine tip (0.38 to be exact). It's a smooth pen and I love the fine tip because it makes my writing very clean and light. Love love love. Speaking of, I got to order more!

6. Reading glasses. I cannot stress enough how much these have saved my life this past year. I do a lot of work online and on my computer with my art projects and my blog and it really strains my eyes sitting in front of a screen. Not joking, my eye sight has changed from freshman year till now in a bad way so my doctor suggested reading glasses. Brilliant kind sir. I get less headaches now and can work more hours on end without feeling like my eyes are going to fall out of my head. I bought mine at Saks Fifth Ave because they had a cute selection but there are plenty of options out there. Check out some here.

7. Moleskine notebooks. Fantastic notebooks. I love them for journaling, doodling, taking notes, etc. The paper is a nice weight and there are so many sizes/shapes/styles to choose from, guaranteed you will find the right one for you. There are sold at Barnes & Nobles and at Target if you don't want to order them online.

8. Super important to carry around a USB with you at all times. You never know when you'll need to transfer a paper to your professor's computer or do a quick presentation of some of your photographs (this happened to me a ridiculous amount of times, thanks for the heads up professor). I try to keep my current and updated projects on it, plus my dad bought me this cute one from Swarovski so I don't mind carrying it around.

Well, hope this was helpful to some of you and remember, you can never ask enough questions or study enough. You won't ever regret either of those, trust me. Good luck darlings!