The Unwritten Road

Does anyone have a life plan anymore? or is this even a thing?

Well I was one of those people that had the now cringe worthy life plans. Looking back at it now it was totally unrealistic but hey just 5 years ago this plan totally seemed achievable.
What was my life plan you ask?

       My plan was that right out of University I would find my dream job, I would work Mon-Fri and my weekends free. I would be in a serious relationship by 20 and get married by 25 and have kids within a few years.

Well guess what i'm almost 25 and none of those things are true. I have been out of University for over a year now and i'm still working the job I had while in University. I am in no serious relationship, well in matter of a fact never really been in one. So there is no chance of marriage any time soon and I can't imagine have kids yet at this stage of my life.

Its funny to think that 5 years ago this was my plan and when I look at that plan now I just laugh. How could I have scheduled parts of my life that are just suppose to happen. I can't plan when i'm gonna fall in love its just something that will hopefully happen. What I have learned is that if I want a plan, make it achievable.



I still think making a life plan is a good idea but centre around things like:
How do you want to be remembered?
What is important to you?
What do you want to accomplish?
What makes you happy?

My new life plan is I guess more of a goal to be happy and to live everyday to its fullest. Keep volunteering, as it puts a smile on my face and I enjoy it. Help out when you can and to not sweat the small stuff. A job will come my way it just takes time and everyone grows up at a different rate so don't sweat the small stuff. Most importantly ENJOY your time with your FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

 
    Do you find that birthdays just pop up out of no where. Is anyone else like that? Well i've decided to tackle this problem and get organized.  All my families birthdays are between November and December where as my friends are March and May. I like to take the time and get someone the perfect gift but that stresses me out when I realize the birthday is just a couple days away. Especially when you find something good online and it take a few weeks to get here.
   I decided i'm gonna get organized, I just made this template and it seems to be working well as I am able to write down any ideas of gifts and budget money. It allows me to plan ahead as I have the birthdays written down so they will not just pop out of no where. It also allows me to know what I have bought so I don't end up buying the same thing or buying a lot.

 This is just an example on how I am using a chart. You can keep it on your phone, laptop or if you like a more written option than writing in a notebook is always good. 

Hard to believe that people are back at school already, its crazy. Well if you still don't have your school supplies or want to reuse your old school supplies I got the perfect DIY. These DIY's are very easy, quick and extremely affordable.


      These are great for personalizing your binders. The best thing with this DIY is you can do what you want you can make a college, personalize it with the subject or just have a cute background. To make these covers I used a free computer program called canva. This program is extremely easy to use, I choose my own dimensions of 8.5x11 so its the size of computer paper that will fit in a binder.
     What I did was find a cute tumblr background and saved it to my computer. Then went to the uploads section on the left hang side and dragged it onto the paper. After that I went to the text section and chose a text I liked. This computer program is awesome, you can use it for more than this is has sections for Facebook posts, Facebook headers, social media posts etc. Once I got the design to my liking I printed it off and slide it into the clear sleeve on my binder.

 

College and University is a time where you learn a lot about yourself and who you are becoming. Its a time where you grow, get stressed to the max and make wonderful memories. Here are my op 5 tips for people who are starting college, trust me they do help as I learnt the hard way from all these experiences. I thought i'd share my tips, so you don't have to go through what I did.

1.  RATEMYPROFESSOR.COM

      I learned about this site after my first year at university and let me tell you its a lifesaver. All you do is plug in your university/college and search for your professor, it will show you reviews of the prof. Its basically just reviews from others that have had that professor before it gives you information on how hard a marker they are, how they teach the material, cares about student, participation matters, and if you skip class will you pass. Trust me this has saved me from some pretty awful teachers
    for example: if you have speaking aloud in class then I would choose a prof were participation doesn't matter.

2.  Use a planner

      Yes your mom was right, you should use a planner. Now this was no problem for me as I use a planner to keep me organized with school and work. A planner helps you keep things organized and know when assignments are due. Once you get your syllabus I would go to my planner and put in all the important dates like midterms, quizzes, tests, papers or readings were due. Its just good at keeping you on top of things.

3. Its OKAY to ask for help
 
       This one took me a while to learn trust me I learned the hard way, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Most time profs are there to help you and take advantage of the office hours, if you have a question or want to go over something they gave you back, they are more than willing to. I was so nervous to go talk to my profs and would avoid it, I would do anything to not go and see them. Its better to just bite the bullet and go speak to them and hey if you go see them and they get to know you it can make a difference between a pass or a failing grade.
      Another thing is don't be embarrassed to get a tutor. They know the material and in most cases know what to expect in an exam. Most tutors have taken the course and for some it was barely recent, and might have even had the same prof which is a massive bonus as they know what your teacher concentrates on for tests. At my university there was a business that would put off tutorials for first year math, physics and chemistry classes before any midterm or final. If they had enough interest they would even do them all year round. Now it was $20 a class but for me for one semester it was totally worth it, I would get more out of that tutorial than I would a class.

4. GPA is important, but it won't make or break you.

      Getting good grades in university is kinda important as it allows you better opportunities and allows you to gave better registration time, but its not life or death. Trust me school has never been a strong suit for me I struggled especially in my first few years at university. I'm not gonna lie I might have failed a course or two, i'm not proud of that but it is what it is and I learned from that. Its normal for most people to have lower grades in there first year of university than what they had in high school. Its okay if your grades are not what they use to be going from high school to university is a big change and it takes a while to get use to it. Sometimes you learn university isn't for you, or that you need to change your studying techniques or finding courses that you like. Once you get into the routine of university your marks will go up. From speaking of personal experience my last year was my year of somewhat good grades, I didn't get the best grades for the first 4 years and it wasn't until my last year that I got my gpa up a little.


5. Its OKAY to change your program.

      A lot of people change their mind on the program they are studying or their major or minor and this is no big deal. I changed my mind and it was no big deal. People learn at different times when they realize a program isn't for them, and sometimes you have to try other courses to figure out what you want. You might go to college and have no idea what you want to do and thats fine to it just takes a little time.
     I figured out after 3 years that a program wasn't for me. At my university you basically do courses that can help you into a certain program or do a year of general studies. I did courses to get me into education, I applied 3 times and never got into the facility. After my 3rd time applying and not getting in I was crushed, I had no back up plan, I wasted 3 years at university I thought . I took it as a sign that meant that the program wasn't for me. So I started talking some other courses to figure out what I liked, I ended up taking a geography class with one of my friends and loved it. I ended up getting all my courses done for that major in just 2 years. I also changed my mind again as I had math as my minor, but  that quickly changed. After my 5th math course I realized university math is totally different than high school math. Its now about proofs, and proving why an angle is 90 degrees. I could do math problems but not proofs. So i changed my mind to psychology and just added on a course here and there and my minor was done in no time.

 

  Hard to believe that the back to school season is starting, I know this post might be a bit early for some but I know some people go back to school in August. I thought I'd share and give everyone the equal opportunity to try these.
   I did 3 different notebooks and all 3 are very easy to make and are great if you want unique school supplies. The 3 notebooks I made were flash tattoo notebook, embroidered notebook and 2 toned notebook.