Things every student should bring to college (that you won’t find on the packing list) #collegetips

[thesouthishot]

"Making a smoothie, where did you even get a blender?"
lol this is my family trying to be "quiet" in the morning 😂

[riverstyx]

As an extra tip, consider that college is hard and you’ll want to cry sometimes but won’t have access to the privacy to do so because of your roommate, or two, or three, and whoever they decide they want to bring over in the dead of night. Scope out the campus for quiet places to go cry. Consider that if it’s nighttime a chosen building on campus might not be open, but generally libraries on American campuses are quiet with lots of places to hide and they often don’t close until 2am. You’ll want to look for a place like that. Just bring a jacket or something to cry into that’ll muffle your voice, and cover your face with a low hat or hoodie or something so no one sees your face. If you’re fortunate enough to have a car I’d recommend that as the best safe space to let it out. There may also be private study rooms on your campus to rent that’ll give you all the privacy you need, they may even be sound proof, but in my experience these have shorter operating hours than the library. Also, if you’re having a hard time, most colleges in the US offer discounted therapy/counseling sessions. Therapy sessions on my campus go for $25/hour. It may help you to just let it all go and talk to someone about the stress you are under.

Edit: The range in the reactions of these comments is about what I expected. Honestly, if you can afford it, get a place where you have your own room. The dorms are way too expensive for what they are and your mental health will be better overall.

Edit 2: I'm surprised this came up in my notifications again and is doing concerningly well, lol. I will say that if you are required to live on campus, on campus apartments are always a thing, and dorms vary a lot in design, so make sure you look into them. Some may even let you have your own room or a dorm all to yourself. You can even be able to opt out of dorm living through certain ways (at my school, if you can't afford the dorms, you can opt out). If you absolutely feel you have to, you can curtain off part of the room to give yourself some privacy from a roommate. If you have a loft bed, putting a curtain on the underside your loft bed could give you a nice place to sit in private.

I never meant to scare anyone with this so I also just want to say that college is amazing--you get to meet so many new interesting people, explore who you are, and have the time of your life. Its also expensive and a lot of work, on top of now having to take care of yourself as a legal adult. It can be a really fun time _if_ you take care of your mental health and properly process/get help with the major life shift into adulthood. It's hard to have fun at all when you're not taking care of yourself, and you're less likely to do it if you're newly an adult. Get counseling, attend workshops, and do whatever you think you need to do to adjust if you are struggling.

[emagirl]

The Loop earplugs are great. I have a pair for home and travel. Reusable and easily to clean so you aren't using the little foam ones which break down and fall out constantly.

[AverageAwesomeDude]

He’s not lying about those lids. Absolute lifesavers they are, I didn’t have much need for the other items but this one I can and do highly recommend

[Joe-Dad]

“Before she mysteriously disappeared in a hot air ballon”
Y so spcific

[jiminslips]

And let's remember (if you do end up using a fake book) to fill it with some type of fabric so when you move it the stuff inside won't make sound.

[RaisonLychi]

Loop are pretty good, they don't completely silence things but they for sure lower volumes, and they're super comfy for sleeping with.

[rosenmael]

Honestly those lids for going over bowls and cups and stuff would just generally be really useful, and I should probably look into them tbh, less to wash sounds great

[fartfish]

THE LOOPS ARE AMAZING! IM AUTISTIC, I GET OVERWHELMED EASILY BY NOISE AND I SWEAR BY LOOPS. THEY BLOCK OUT BACKGROUND NOISE SO WELL. ITS MAGICAL.

[ml]

earplugs saved my life. had a bed right up against the windows and every morning in the fall freshman year they had dudes out there blowing leaves

[jordanthegenderthief]

For the loops: They work really well for my misaphonia. Because my parents think wearing sound-muting headphones would “make people think I don’t want to talk” 😒 they got me a pair of them. They work fairly well, but work better when it’s overall fairly noisy and it can be difficult to hear people talking with them in

[lilacheart_]

for plates/bowls/cups i highly recommend at least a few collapsible ones!! they save SO MUCH room

[nuuget]

Just here to drop in my two cents! I'm autistic, so my ears are VERY sensitive to noise. LOOPS ARE A I own 3 pairs and they're absolutely wonderful. They come with different sizes for the thing that goes in your ears, so they can fit everyone. They also come in different colors (I have the red, pink, and green ones). Not only that, but they're soft, so you can even sleep with them on! I recommend Loops for literally everyone.

[Wandervenn]

Look, I'm just sayin now... if you have night or evening classes and your roommate has early morning classes... just ask for a new roommate asap. If ANYTHING goes wrong, your early morning roommate has all the power to sabotage you by being loud in the morning and the excuse of "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought I was being quiet." When confronted.

I was tortured for weeks to the point of me being so sleep deprived I started crying in class when a teacher yelled at me for nodding off. The RA couldnt do anything because my roommate was like, "Oh, I didnt know~" despite literally slamming her stuff around intentionally, the morning after I told her to back off for being a huge bully to our dormmate.

It's easy for everyone to think they'll be perfect friends on the first day of living together and promising to be understanding and that nobody is bothered by anything. No. Set boundaries early and advocate for your needs if you want to have the best chance at success. My roommate issue ended in me and our other dormmate not continuing college. Our bullied dormmate just quit middway from the bullying, but I stayed the year and my grades suffered from all the wasted time and energy dealing with roommate drama.

[RectPropagation]

OK, but that last one sounds like a good idea regardless of what stage of life you're in.

[leecerda-jones]

Those loop ear plugs are a GOD SEND. I'm navy and our ship was being worked on for 5 years and it's LOUD grinders and hammers shit like that on the metal parts of the ship. Put those babys in and its just a hum. U can still distinguish what's happening cause it's loud as hell but won't give you a headache. So a blender or a loud classroom 👌🏼👌🏼👌🏼 chefs kiss. Not a problem. And it's good for ADHD and Autistic peeps for over stimulating sounds❤️❤️

[twisted_tapestry]

Oh, wow! I actually use those Loop earplugs to deal with sensory issues. Very good to block out background noise without deleting everyone's voice at the same time.

[rose_tea]

Yes to the earplugs, and a small desk fan to zone out some more noise of the Whooping and yelling on the streets. I use Mack's earplugs

[clementinedreamzz]

i got the loop earplugs because im autistic and very sensitive to loud noises. they work very well, absolutely amazing i definitely recommend them

[pancakes-qofv]

The specific sob story of the mom while he was talking so fast made giggle