Join a team, get to know your city, and never lose touch with good friends. This year is your chance to ensure a college experience that is everything you hoped for and more. Learn how to take advantage of the resources around you and graduate with confidence.
You've been working hard and playing harder for three years, and year four has
come around faster than you can believe. Within a blink of the eye, college will
be over, and you will be faced with the real world whether you are ready or not.
There are ways, however, to make the most of this last year to ensure that your
college experience was everything it could have been. There were things you
wanted to accomplish while you were here, places you wanted to see, and friends
you never want to lose. By taking a few extra minutes to create a game plan for
this last year, you can be sure to leave college with no loose ends and no
regrets.
Give Back Your Freshman Fifteen
Your first year left you with a little more baggage then just a bunch of used
textbooks. Fat-laden dining hall food and all-you-can-eat sundae bars seem to
have permanently altered your once athletic physique. Then, there have been all
those late night cravings for cheesy bread after long hours of partying away
school stress. Luckily, you don't have to return home looking like you have been
preparing for a long winter of hibernation, because college offers limitless
ways to get back into shape before graduation.
Try learning to cook. You don't have to become a gourmet chef to prepare
healthy and affordable meals in your own home. Try eating more salad and fruit,
and grill chicken breasts on a cheap electric grill. Enlist your roommates too.
Stop ordering so much late night food and baking so many cookies. You can start
eating healthier as a team and go to the market together for healthy options.
If you haven't made a habit of regular exercise between classes and parties,
now is the time to start. Most colleges these days offer state of the art
fitness facilities on or near campus. The membership to these facilities is
almost always included in tuition fees.
If you can't handle the testosterone packed weight room, or the monotony of
cardio equipment, look into classes. Most fitness centers on college campuses
offer a selection of aerobics, step, spinning, sculpt, and even martial arts
classes that can help you ease your way into a healthy lifestyle. Making daily
exercise part of your routine is important, because even the simple transition
back to home town life can add weight.
On campus, you have to walk or bike everywhere, back home you'll rediscover
your car. Also, facing the job market can overwhelm many recent graduates, and
that stress can lead to eating problems.