"3 Things I Learned From College"

Today's post is a different one, being Thursday, I’ve decided to do a TBT with things I’ve learned from college, I’m already in my last semester so I feel like I have got some important things to share. 

For the ones that have followed me and know my “story”, I’ve struggled a lot; I remember when I used to have good and bad days and my life kind of felt like a roller coaster, little by little that started shaping and now, I barely complain and with a couple of months left to end what it have been – after all – an amazing journey and stage of my life I’m already reminiscing on all the good and not-so good but not so bad either and feeling way too nostalgic. 

So, four years at Uni have taught me a lot but everything’s been for the good and as well as part of growing up and getting ready for “adulthood” if that does make sense. So, I’ve learned:

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HOW TO BE RESPONSIBLE

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There’s such a HUGE difference when you’re in school and in college/uni. Yes, you still get tasks, deadlines, and so on. But in Uni the responsibilities increase every time a brand new semester starts. It feels like it asks YOU for more, and you have to give your best. Well, at least in my case studying fashion design brought itself so many of them and they all felt like that. 

It feels like a way to also be organized, to do whatever has to be done, you're given tasks/assigments, deadlines, SO MUCH WORK. I personally put my studies as a priority that the rest would just come after that, like for example take my time to still blog when I haven't been busy, hence why I update this every now and then and that's okay and it works still. 

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HOW TO MANAGE MY TIME

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Studying a career like this, has taken all of my time including free time as well. It’s never easy but there are days where there’s a lot to get done. They say, that us, designers love to work under the pressure and that we tend to leave things for the very last minute. I used to believe that but I thought there was another way NOT TO RUSH and go through all that madness and stress. 

It took me a while to learn how to manage my own time until I started my internships. The schedule was like this: Internship during the morning (8am to 12pm), I had classes from (1pm to 6pm) and the whole night to get all my homework assignments done for the next day. Being busy, active all day long every day for about 3 months helped me manage my own time. In fact, there were days where I didn’t have so much to do so I would take a day to do whatever had to be done for the next week, so I would not be rushing and would have another week “off” if I can call it so.

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HOW TO MANAGE MY MONEY AND SAVE IT

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This one has got to be my favourite and probably the one I’m most proud of myself. Long story short, I used to spend my money years ago, it felt like having money on my hands felt very itchy that I had to spend it now or now. I couldn’t even wait. Being at Uni has taught me how to have a better and stable financially life plus my parents have always taught my brother and me to not get into debts and to be honest, I’ve taken it so seriously that I love paying in cash rather than with a credit card.

When I was in school I was given not much than COP$5000 but being at Uni, I have had a monthly budget that I’m given by my parents and manage on my own, it is usually between COP$150.000 – COP$200.000 where I use it to pay my transportations whether they’re buses and/or taxi, photocopies, and all that stuff that I might need. There’s been semesters of semesters where I either end up being broke or end up with over COP$30.000 that I didn’t use and put it on my savings + piggy bank (that also counts as savings but I do not use the money from this one)  

Talking about finances and managing money, this leads me to another thing and it is that part of this is thanks to the project I worked on together my friends, (see the 2nd photo, in the mini magazine, that is the project I worked on aka my thesis – a costume for the Carnival queen)  it was as expensive as we expected it to be but it left me with a lesson – one that my mom uses to do during paycheck/pay time and it’s to have an agenda and write down all the things that need to be paid throughout the month, in my case I write down all the things where I’ve spent all my money. For example, if I’ve taken COP$50.000 from my savings I write it down and if I happen to spend it, I write exactly on what like getting mani and pedi or getting my eyebrows or legs waxed, etc.

It’s like a way for me to be organized and to know where that money went to. I used to be forgetful years ago and unorganized when it came to money, but now, having learned all of this helps me even more as I’ll soon be a graduate and join the working life and get an income every month, because that's life. I know things are different here in Colombia; however, learning how to save and manage bills can help to all of you in the U.S. as well. When you leave your university you have incredible amounts of debt, so to help make that debt more manageable check out Earnest. They can refinance your student loans to one low-interest monthly payment. Check more information here.

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“School days are over and you’re in a transition of growing up and joining college, that’s another step close to working life, my tip to YOU is to make the most out of your time in college and enjoy it. You can still go to parties and all of that, but learn how to use your time and money wisely and pay what it has to be paid on time and learn to save it”. 

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I hope you guys found this post interesting and for the ones who recently got back to school I want YOU to take this as an ADVICE from me to you, this may sounds familiar to you, sometimes our parents even tell us this or sometimes certain situations in our life teach us how to but consider the fact this is reality and it's something that will help you to keep on shaping to become the person you want to be, and if YOU already do this, a big virtual hug for you, well done and continue like that. 

Let me know in the comment box below, what did you or have learned from college?

Until next time! xx