Life as a Dare

Making Every Moment Count

5 Ways to Save Time & Money on Lunches

Do you ever find it hard to budget on food when you’re on campus all the time?

I have definitely been there. Especially since generally I have so much to get done that packing a lunch completely slips my mind. That was a huge problem for me my first year of school in particular. I was living about a 20 minute bus ride away from campus which isn’t bad, but meant I couldn’t go home for lunch. So I always had to pack one. Except usually I didn’t–I’d just go to subway, or get sushi or meet up with a friend.

And the receipts piled up.

Everything changed after lent my first year at university. I go to a Wesleyan church, but we take part in lent every year, which is a 40 day fast from something of your choice leading up to Easter. I had done lent quite a few times before, so I decided to go kind of crazy. I gave up all items with processed sugars. No bread, no candy, no chips, nothing. I pretty much ate rice, beans, vegetables, fruits, and I let myself have cheese because I knew that if I didn’t I’d really slip up quickly!

What it meant, though, was that it was virtually impossible for me to find anything that I could eat on campus. Suddenly, if I was going to go through with this lent promise I had made, I would have to a packed lunch with me every single day. [Read more…]

How I Said Good-Bye to All-Nighters

I hear all the time about college students pulling all-nighters for their classes, and I’ve always wondered, “Why?”

See, I’ve never had to stay up past my normal bed-time to get work done, because since moving to school I’ve always gotten it done during the day (for the most part, at least).

The few times I’ve had to work past 6 PM have been because I didn’t follow my own timeline for studying and got distracted, or had lunch with a friend last minute and got 2 hours behind. If you’re stressed about how much work you have to do, and don’t know how you’re going to get it all done, know this: it is possible to get everything done with time to spare. You don’t need to stay up until 3 in the morning finishing that paper if you just get into good habits from early on in the semester. [Read more…]

13 Fun Fall Activities to Help You De-Stress

Fall is here, and it is beautiful. But it also is really stressful for students (midterms are killer), and I’ve a hard time finding fun fall activities in the past!

I’m not much of one for winter, and here in Canada we have winters that are much too cold and summers that are much too hot, so spring and fall are a happy in-between.

Unfortunately, they also end far too quickly, and since I’ve been in school every fall for the last 3 years, I’ve been missing out on this gorgeous season.

This year, in fourth year, I’m really realizing how important it is to let yourself just take a break once in a while. How refreshing it is to just get out, turn off the laptop, put away the textbooks, and enjoy life. I’m working on living life more purposely (thus the blog name), and one way to do that is to not let beautiful things like fall leaves and crisp autumn air go to waste!  [Read more…]

Packing List for a Library Study-Binge

Midterms are here. And they’re hitting hard. So I’ve had a lot of days studying at the library.

One of the things I find so interesting about college is no matter how hard I study all semester, it always seems that when midterm season comes I have so many library-study-binge days that I start to forget that I have another home.

Finding yourself in the library for 15 hours at a time is a definite stage in college that I’d say 85% of us experience multiple times. Especially now that my workload has quadrupled in fourth year, I believe I’ve found exactly what you need to have at a library study-sessions to make sure you don’t get bored and quit halfway through.

So, since library studying-binge days are pretty much a given for all college students, I thought I’d try to make your midterm-season a little easier by giving you my list of everything to bring with you for your library study-binge!  [Read more…]

9 Quick Ways to Look Put Together | The Professional Collegiate

I have so many friends in school who always look put together and I was so in awe of them for the longest time.

You know, the girls with the perfect makeup, perfect skin, the long, sleek hair that just falls perfectly over their shoulders, and who are always wearing super cute clothes, even if they’re just at school. I just never can measure up. I’m always doing so many things at once that I forget something, whether it’s my hair, or to put my contacts in, or to iron that shirt I wanted to wear.

Please tell me some of you can relate.

Over the last year or so, however, as I’ve strived to become more professional at school and pretty much everywhere, I’ve learned a few tips and tricks to fake it even if I didn’t spend a ton of time getting ready in the morning. Sometimes it’s great, and I have enough time to get all dolled up, but sometimes life happens and I’m up late getting a paper done, or I sleep through my alarm. So, for those times, here are 9 QUICK ways that I always use to still look put together, even if I don’t feel it at the time!  [Read more…]

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