Is There Enough Fun To Be Had In College?

Pursuing new academic interests is one of the often mentioned goals of college. But what about finding new hobbies? That’s actually another benefit that comes from school. While college will always be about expanding your educational horizons, it’s also a great time to pick up a few new activities that you enjoy doing. 

Before going further, perhaps it seems college wouldn’t be such an ideal time to discover new hobbies or interests. After all, a significant part of college life involves schoolwork. That being said, though, you’ll still take time—and need time—to unwind. And for such reprieve, college offers the perfect environment. 

You know that, even if you go to a small school, there will be plenty of extracurricular events occurring at all times. Have you ever tried rock climbing? How about painting? You’ll be in an environment where there are always new things going on, and opportunities to try them all will be in abundance. Best of all, since it’ll be a school club, it’ll be free!

You might not think you need any help finding new forms of fun or new hobbies, but what if you discover something that you really like? This same concept is often applied to learning; you’ll frequently hear that college is a great time to explore academic interests, and it’s part of the reason why your school probably has diverse general education requirements. So take this same spirit and apply it to your hobbies, as you won’t know what’s out there until you try.

At the very least, you’ll certainly hear friends discussing TV shows and music that they like, and you’ll probably check out what they’re interested in, too. This will lead to further discovery of new interests, and while becoming a fan of a new favorite show isn’t exactly going to be life-changing or one of your best college memories, it’ll serve as a minor example of the sort of connections and new experiences that college life fosters.

And if you’re one for sports or other recreational physical activity, college again provides the best time to try something new. It might not be the easiest to get into, say, touch football a couple decades down the road. So don’t miss out on such activities while you can! 

Staying Green in College: Tips For Environmentally Friendly Dorm and College Life

It’s been trendy for years now to live as environmentally friendly as possible; there are even some rather extreme green methods of green living out there! Yet, assuming you’d like to do your part and help out the earth, you don’t need to live a plastic-free life just to have a more green lifestyle in college. There are a variety of simple, effective, and college-related means of staying green.

Unplug Your Dorm

No matter if you spend plenty of time in your dorm room or go there mainly just to sleep, many of your electronics, or devices related to your electronics, will always remain in your dorm room. Your charger for your cellphone and for your laptop, for example, are probably lying in some tangle on your floor. Aside from being a tripping hazard (which is a topic for

another day), those chargers can be doing damage if unchecked. OK, they’re not really a safety threat, but they’re an earth-health threat. Don’t leave them plugged in when not in use, as you’ll drain unneeded electricity. No, you don’t pay an electrical bill for your dorm room, but since it’s so easy to just unplug those chargers, don’t leave them needlessly plugged in. The same goes for your electric pencil sharpener, printer, and other electronics that you might not use often. Sucking up unneeded electricity is like pouring water down the drain. Why waste?

Keep it in Park

While you’re on campus, you might have brought a car to school, even if it’s your first year. Maybe you need to drive to sports practice or to club meetings off-campus. Either way, don’t use your car when it’s not needed. In fact, you’re likely not even adding to the convenience factor when driving when you consider parking, gas, traffic jams, and possibly a fender bender. Even if your campus is spread out, it’ll never be out of the question to walk, ride a bike, or take a campus shuttle if available. You know that walking and biking will also combat freshman-year weight gain, so it’s a win-win.

Finish Your Food

Speaking of weight gain, that all-you-can-eat school cafeteria will be beckoning at all hours of the day and night. Usually it’s a quick swipe of your student ID, and plates of plates of food are yours for the taking. Hopefully it tastes good, and if it does, that smorgasbord of plates can pile up quick on your cafeteria tray. There’s plenty to be said about healthy eating in college, yet also consider reducing wasting food. A few bites of a sandwich here, half a cookie there, and some spoonfuls of soup might comprise a meal, but consider how much you just threw out. You might think uneaten food is helping your figure, but you’re also wasting and hurting the environment with every tossed bite. Instead, take only what you plan to consume and avoid sending half your meal to some landfill. Some green-innovative schools collect food scraps for compost. How about getting that started in your school?

Plenty of Paper

Along those lines, avoid tearing out 15 napkins, using two, and then tossing the rest. To save paper further, you can look toward the classroom. You’ll receive plenty of syllabi and paper handouts throughout your college career, which means lots of felled trees. You probably won’t be rushing out to plant more trees, but you can certainly recycle all those papers. (OK, you might have to resist the urge to burn a folder from a particularly loathsome class.) Recycling a whole course-load of papers can really add up. And it’s not like any extra work is required—just drop it in the recycling bin instead of the trash!