Hey guys. I wrote this a few weeks ago and don’t want to rewrite the intro. I hope you all are doing well. I’m trying to find ways to enjoy this self-quarantine while it lasts because when else in my life will I be encouraged to stay home and Disney movies. 🙂 I know all the bloggers are writing about Covid-19, how to be productive at home, etc. But I don’t want to write about that stuff the whole time it’s happening. I have a bunch of end-of-college posts that I was planning on writing. Plus, I still plan on catching up on my Europe recaps, and I’d rather write about fun things even if they’re not relevant right now. I’ll definitely write something about taking online classes next month, but I really don’t plan on changing my editorial calendar. I hope you continue following along with my life. Now, on to the post!
Hello, lovelies! Now that I’m almost done with college, I’ll be writing a lot of reflective posts about things I’ve learned, things I regret, how I could afford to travel in college, etc. types of posts, which should be fun. I thought I’d start with the ways I’ve invested in myself these past four years rather than writing a “how to invest in yourself in college” because I find it more interesting to read about what individual people did rather than a list of ideal things to do. I hope you enjoy.
1.//I Built An Emergency Fund
I was very frugal and financially responsible throughout college. I read personal finance blogs and read books about money. Personal finance is a topic that has always interested me and I very much value stability in life, so the first step to that is to manage the money I already have. Not necessarily make more money.
Anyway, my income in college fluctuated a lot, but I was very intentional about how I spent it. I’d almost never ate out, but I would happily buy tickets to a Broadway show at the Fox theatre or a plane ticket to Canada. The best thing I did before spending money on fun experiences was creating an emergency fund. This is always the first step you hear about when it comes to being financially stable because most people in the U.S live paycheck to paycheck and it’s estimated that only 40% of Americans are able to pay an unexpected bill of $1000. This is why so many people get into credit card debt when there’s an emergency.
The general rule of thumb is to start with $1000, then once you pay off your debt, build it up to 3-6 months of living expenses. I think it’s important to talk about money candidly, so I’ll share with you how much I kept in my account. (This is for educational purposes. ). I have two savings accounts. The first one is my emergency fund, where I kept $1500 for emergencies. I saved the first $1000 in my Freshman year of college when I lived at home and commuted from my parents’ house. I didn’t have any bills, so it was possible for me to save that amount of money quickly. I slowly built it up to $1500 then stopped there since I don’t have a lot set monthly expenses where I wouldn’t be able to pay a bill if I stopped working. It’s a little over $1000 now because I paid off my housing in cash in January because I didn’t want to take out student loans and didn’t want to drain my other savings account more than I need to.
The majority of the times I’ve used this emergency fund was for my car. Things like parking tickets, or repairs, or going to the tag office. Stuff like that. Most of my irregular expenses are related to my car. I budget for things like food, gas, or my monthly health insurance bill. My mom also sends food with me every week since I don’t have a meal plan, which saves me a lot of money.
I highly recommend you save an emergency fund in college because, trust me, an unexpected expense will come up.
Related:
2.//I Took Courses Unrelated To My Major
I’ve taken a diverse array of classes since starting college. I took religious studies, theatre, women’s glee club, astronomy, and many others to fill various requirements for my degree. I took Intro to Anthropology in my freshman year and that ended up becoming my minor. I love my major and the courses I’ve taken for it, like special education or developmental psychology, but it was nice to have one or two classes each semester that took me out of my psychology/disability studies bubble. I learned a lot from them and made friends who have many different aspirations in life.
3.//I Read Books For Fun
High school was an awful time for me, reading-wise. I’m one of those rare people who loved high school and had a lot of fun during it, but it was also one of the most stressful times in my life. I went to a very difficult college-level high school (We started with 350 people and 190 graduated) that has made the past four years of actual college much easier. I did read in high school, but the number of books I read decreased exponentially, and I pretty much reread old favorites on loop.
The reestablishing of my reading habit is pretty well-documented on this blog. You can go through my archives and get a pretty good look at the books I’ve read. I am so grateful that I’ve made time to read every day. It filled up so much of the “slush time” back when I commuted to university and rode the train every day. It’s given me so much to talk about with my friends and has been such a great form of inspiration in my writing. (Plus all the other benefits of reading, like expanding my vocabulary and improving memory).
Nearly every college student I meet is shocked about how often I read, saying that they never have time for it, but it’s honestly been one of the easier investments I’ve made in myself these past four years. Everyone’s situation is different, but if it’s a hobby you enjoy, it’s possible to read even just one book for fun in the span of a year.
Related:
4.//I’ve Travel Both Domestically & Internationally
When I started college, my biggest goal was to travel. At that point, I had never left the country and had never been on a plane (that I could remember). I’m very lucky in that my parents showed me it was possible to travel under difficult circumstances. My brother has autism (the severe, low-functioning kind), so the fact that I was able to travel so much as a kid is pretty miraculous. We’d go to Disney World and road-trip to Texas or New York all the time, while many other special needs families never have that opportunity.
Even so, I was itching to see more. Once I saved the money, I started traveling. I took so many fun trips in college (most of them alone). I road tripped to Charleston, South Carolina with my friends to go to a book festival. I visited one of my friends who was interning in the Disney College Program, and we did all four parks and Disney Springs in one weekend. I traveled to Bangladesh for the first time to meet my grandmother and cousins and saw the country I’m from. I also went there alone, which is pretty unheard of since I’m a girl. I flew to Canada for a week to visit a friend. The biggest trip I took was a month in Europe where I traveled through 15 countries. I also took a solo trip to Harry Potter World. This isn’t even including the trips I took with my family. These are just the ones I took by myself.
I traveled so much in college, and it was well worth the work it took to save the money to take the trips. I used to read travel blogs and dream of traveling as much as I do now (and plan to do in the future), and I’m glad I started making it a reality in college.
Related: Trips I Mentioned
- YALL Fest Recap | Charleston, SC Trip 2017
- Weekend At Walt Disney World Recap | Part 1 (Magic Kingdom & Epcot)
- Weekend At Walt Disney World Recap | Part 2 (Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, & Disney Springs)
- Disney Trip Debrief | Budget, Planning Process, Etc.
- My Spring Break Travel Plans (And The Story Behind Them) (Canada)
- 5 Day Spring Break Trip To Toronto, Canada
- One Day Solo Trip To Universal Studios Recap
- London, Paris, & Swiss Alps | Travel Diary #1
- Florence, Rome, & Venice | Travel Diary #2
- Croatia, Slovenia, & Hungary | Topdeck Travel Diary #3
- Poland, Prague, & Germany | Travel Diary #4
- Copenhagen, Amsterdam & London | Travel Diary #5
- Perfect Day In Paris | What You Can Realistically Get Done In One Day
5.//I Learned How To Enjoy Working Out
I was not a person who worked out before college. I was a nerd, so I read books and enjoyed doing math and playing scrabble with my friends. I did play outside as a kid and danced, but my life became incredibly sedentary in high school, and I was cool with it.
That changed in my Freshman year of college when I started going to the gym every day. As I’ve said before, this had nothing to do with being healthy. This habit was completely motivated by the fact that the gym was “free,” and not going to the gym was basically wasting tuition money. No matter how it started, I now LOVE working out. I feel stronger and more energetic. I sleep better. I feel more confident about my body, which I was quite indifferent about before. Overall, great investment and a habit I plan on keeping for the rest of my life.
Related – A Practical Guide To Working Out Regularly In College
6.//I Gave Myself Alone Time
This is something I acutely remember about my Freshman year of college. Prior to that, I was always surrounded by people. I live in a four-bedroom house with seven other people. I have an amazing group of friends and always had people to talk to in high school. There was one point in high school where showering was my only alone time, where I could just a minute with myself. I got my driver’s license in the tail end of high school, and those few months driving alone were amazing. I realized how much I was craving alone time.
So that’s pretty much what I did my Freshman year. I had fun and would meet up with people once or twice a week but for the most part, I chilled with myself. I would read and walk around the city and go to the gym and just really be by myself. I never felt lonely because you can be alone without feeling lonely. It was a great mental break from people, which I realize is a weird thing to say since Freshman year is usually when typical college students create a friend group and go drinking every weekend. (This really isn’t the case. I know so many people who didn’t meet “their tribe” in college. I was just lucky to meet mine in middle school.)
Making friends is easier when you live on campus. I’m not gonna lie, commuting from home made having a social life in college harder (but not impossible), but I’m glad that I gave myself alone time. That was the catalyst for a lot of the great things that happened in college like starting my business, building this blog, traveling to other countries, etc.
Related – Living In A Dorm Vs. Commuting To College
7.//I Invested In A Goal Planner
I talk about this all the time, but I’ll talk about it again. I bought a $55 goal planner in 2017 to set goals for the next year, and it was life-changing. I had never been able to finish a workbook or planner at that point but this one was so useful to fill out. There were tons of journal prompts that helped me figure out what the fuck I wanted out of life, and my life feels so much more together now because of it. There are so many expensive and fancy self-development courses out there, but I doubt they hold a candle to this planner. I’ve gifted it to a friend each year since I used mine and it’s helped them a lot too.
8.//I Did Things With Friends That I Normally Wouldn’t Do (Social Investments)
Reading this point again makes me realize that it looks like I’m talking about drugs. I am not talking about drugs. Don’t do drugs because of peer pressure kids.
I’m talking about going to social events that I wouldn’t normally go to. Like, I’ve never been into The Bachelor and would never watch it on my own, but I’d go to a Bachelor viewing party at a friend of a friend’s apartment every Monday last year, and we’d all watch it in the background while doing homework on our laptops. It was so fun!
Another one of my friends is very religious, and she’d invite me to a weekly bible study even though I’m not Christian. I’d say no to her offer every week because I thought it would be awkward and I didn’t want to impose, but I decided to go one day, and it was really nice. It wasn’t overbearing or anything. It was literally just sitting in someone’s apartment and discussing religion for two hours. And I met a bunch of new people because of it.
I have a tendency to want to cancel my plans. I never actually do it, but sometimes, I just want to stay in my dorm room and watch T.V. Going out of my way to do things I wouldn’t do for the sake of meeting people and spending time with them was 100% worth it and made college all the more fun.
9.//I Decorated My Dorm Room
I think decorating your space makes it feel like home. I decorated my dorm room as soon as I moved it, and it’s made a world of difference in how I felt when I was there. I very much dislike white walls and the minimalist aesthetic phase we’re in right now. Honestly, the first two weeks of senior year when my room wasn’t decorated was when it felt the least like home. I dunno, there’s just something about having photos and posters on the walls that make a place feel yours, rather than a temporary cell for you to live in. I spent less than $15 decorating my dorm room, and it made a huge difference.
Related – Dorm Room Tour
10.//I Invested In Quality Make-Up
I’ve never been one to wear makeup. Not because I’m against it or don’t need it. I have acne scars all over my face, but I would rarely wear makeup because I didn’t have any that matched my skin tone. I’d always use my mom’s makeup when I needed to wear it, and her skin is significantly paler than mine, so I always looked ridiculous. I also get more pimples when I wear it, so I may as well go bare face anyway.
I didn’t go out of my way to buy good quality makeup until I was 20 when my mom and I went to Sephora. They used a machine and matched my skin to a foundation, and that’s what I’ve been using for the last two years. It was expensive, but I don’t immediately break out when I use it and I don’t feel ridiculous when I wear makeup anymore, so it was a good investment. Plus, I don’t wear makeup regularly, which makes it lasts a long time.
11.//I Started This Blog
Let’s end on a cheesy note. I started this blog a few days after graduating high school, and it has by far been one of the best parts of college. So much of my life is documented on this site, and it’ll be fun to read in years to come.
On a more practical note, I am a significantly better writer because of it. I can write a 1000 word essay in an hour and have gotten A’s on papers that I barely edit. It’s been a productive break in between studying and homework, and it gives me something to do when I have nothing to do. Starting this blog has been a great investment of my time and money, and I plan on continuing this long after college.
So, yeah. These are the ways I’ve invested in myself throughout college, and I hope to continue to work out and travel and save money for the rest of my twenties because the habits don’t stop here.
Life update – I’m actually moving out of my dorm tomorrow (yesterday when you guys read this). They’re staggering the move-out dates so that too many students aren’t on campus at once and should be giving us a refund on housing soon. I don’t know how I feel about it. I was sad for like a day, and now I’m just ready to move on. I literally wrote about how coronavirus has affected my senior year of college yesterday, so I won’t repeat anything here. I’m just over it. I’ll update again when I do my March recap when I publish my April goals.
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What are some ways you’ve invested in yourself in college?