College Happenings

The essential debts of college, such as student loans, are enough to deal with. There’s no need to further stress your finances by making decisions that are detrimental to your fiscal health.

Credit cards can be dangerous. They’re great to have for in case of emergency, but it’s important to resist the temptation of have now and pay later for nonessential things. And, that applies to the things you need as well. You may need a laptop, but do you really need the top of the line, fastest model money can buy?

Building up unnecessary debt won’t help you when it comes time to buy a new car or a house. Letting the debt sit and build interest while you make the minimum payments during the time you are in college is going to be very expensive. Working the extra hours to pay that debt while in school will hurt your grades.

Conserve your cash with smart spending. Make a budget and use it well. Bargain shop and eat in. Consider weighting your cash outlays towards durables – stuff you’ll actually have for a while, not like beer, and get some long-term benefit out of.

Coming out of college with the least amount of debt possible will help smooth the transition into the real world. Learning good spending habits now will help ensure that you’ll be able to finance your future.

Clearly, date rape is wrong, people shouldn’t do it. But, counting on other people’s sense of right and wrong isn’t going to keep you safe. Making smart choices will.

Alcohol is often a factor. If you’re going to drink, make choices that will protect you. Don’t get outrageously drunk around strangers or acquaintances and let your control slip. Friends of friends are exactly that – not your friends. Stick with your trusted group. Don’t ride or wander off alone with people you don’t know you can trust.

Dress for the occasion. If you are going to be drinking, and do drink too much, would you rather be stumbling around or passing out in a dress that may accidentally reveal things you’d rather keep private, or clothes that offer a bit of protection?

Understand that people don’t always get the message you think you are presenting. Nor do some particularly care, being self-absorbed and into what they want or what they can get. Think twice about a late night visit to a dorm room of a guy you don’t know well enough to trust in all circumstances.

It’s up to you to make the best choices for yourself and your safety. Don’t count on others to make the right decision and live in the world that is, not in the one that should be.

Drinking is part of the college experience for many. Avoid the worst of the negatives by drinking safer. Here are three ways you can do that.

1. Maintain control in public spaces. You need to be on point to avoid the assortment of problems that can occur while in the street or at the club or bar, such as mugging, assault, rape, etc. You should be in control physically and mentally when out and about around people you do not know.
2. Be around friends. For serious drinking, as in getting really drunk, choose safe places and safe people. Don’t let your guard be down around people that are not your tight group of friends. Acquaintances can be dangerous, especially with alcohol involved.
3. Know your limit and stick to it. Too much alcohol can kill. Don’t mix drugs with alcohol; you can heighten the effect of one or both substances and overdose. Stomach pumping is not fun.

Smart drinking can be fun on occasion. However, drinking to blot out or avoid problems never works. It just makes everything worse in the long-run. Best to stick to limiting that sort of stuff to when you’re already feeling good.

It’s not at all uncommon to experience a period of feeling down or blue, stress, anxiety, and even depression during college. However, there are things you can do for yourself to help protect you from these feelings. Here are 3 important ones:

1. Eat well. Many common nutrients, such as the B-complex vitamins, have a powerful effect on mood and mental functioning. Your physical energy and endurance relies on the quality of what you consume.
2. Don’t procrastinate tasks. It only leads to stress, a surefire way to stoke the blues, increase anxiety and even contribute to depression.
3. Get enough sleep . As simple as it sounds, this is a big deal. Exhaustion affects mental mood and functioning. Furthermore, if you’re tired all the time, you’re probably not going to make the effort to eat well and you will be more prone to procrastination. An ugly and vicious cycle can easily occur, one hard to break out of.

With serious or ongoing symptoms, always seek help from the mental health staff. That’s what they’re there for and it can help you get right back on the path to college success.