Student Life Archives

For those returning home during the winter holidays, there are more preparations to make than just throwing all of the dirty clothes in a suitcase. Whether you are returning home from your first semester or your seventh, there are several important things to keep in mind.

1. Remember that the toilet paper at home is not 1/4-ply like in the dorms, so resist the urge to pull off a three-foot sheet.

2. Turn off your alarm clock!

3. If you haven’t already killed a goldfish, winter break is just daring you to become a murderer…so please, just take it home or leave it with a St. Louis friend.

4. A curfew will probably still be in effect when you return home. Consider asking the parents for a later time, but don’t be surprised when they come into your room at 10 p.m. and ask why you’re still awake.

5. Take advantage of the fact that you can drive. And that there is food in the fridge. And that both things are free.

6. When you unplug things in your dorm room, DO NOT unplug your refrigerator.

7. Don’t be afraid to request your favorite foods when you get home. Cooking for you is not a parent’s burden, it is a pleasure.

8. You might be having a TV for the first time in four months, but your family might not be willing to give it up so easily. Consider the dilemma of your father’s favorite news program versus “Gossip Girl.” Can you guess the winner?

9. Prepare for the reinstatement of dinner time.

10. Winter break might be a time for some of you to sleep in, but your family isn’t guaranteed to agree. You will be bothered about waking up past 10 a.m., so just find a way to deal.

As the holiday coupons wedge their way under the doors, don’t get carried away by sales. Advertisers are doing their best to tempt potential customers into passing out iPods and ponies to their closest friends and family. Most people spend a great deal of money around the holiday season with the justification that they will save later, but according to Mike Gordinier, a senior lecturer in the Olin Business School and professor of the popular Personal Finance class, now is the time to be saving, not spending-and not just in this time of the season, but in this time of life.

The common wisdom is to save now, and spend later. The following are some tips to help you with that mantra:

1. Live within your means. Don’t spend money you don’t have. It may seem obvious, but over-reliance on credit cards is an incredibly easy way to ring yourself up a mountain of debt.

2. Use credit cards, but do so sparingly. Gordinier recommends that you have two; make sure, however, to get the right kinds and to pay the full balance each month in order to establish a good credit history. Paying only the minimum balance creates debt faster than you think. When it comes to finding the right card, avoid the offers you get in the mail – the interest rates are usually higher since so many irresponsible people sign up for those cards. Gordinier recommends consulting www.bankrate.com to find the lowest fixed-rate credit cards.

3. When you get a paycheck, pay yourself first. This is the best way to guarantee having anything left at the end of the month. Setting aside 10 to 15 percent for later and then living on the rest is a good rule of thumb.
“If you spend first and then save, you end up never having anything to save,” said Gordinier.

4. Become an investor. Find an aggressive growth mutual fund that can protect and increase your investment. Don’t, however, invest all of your money; keep about three to six months of living expenses on hand in case of emergencies.

5. Be smart in paying off your loans. As a student and a future real-world adult, you are bound to have loans. Gordinier recommends taking a careful look at the interest rates on your loans and striking a good balance between paying off loans and investing your money. Generally, you don’t have to rush to pay off really low interest loans if you can invest that money, but you shouldn’t accumulate debt either; in the long run, you are more likely to be approved for the loans to buy a house or a car if you have less debt.

6. Students often plan to take time off and travel between graduating from college and starting a job (or continuing with more education). However, the money you make in your early post-graduation years is the money that will grow the most if you invest it; Furthermore, if you save and invest as much as you can in the early years of your adult life, you don’t have to save nearly as much after you get over the hill. If you can manage to save now, you’re set for life. That way, when you’re 45 and wondering what to get your former college roommate for the holidays, you really can get that pony.

The glow in the beginning of a relationship is alluring. Nurturing the early stages of a relationship is important, but some people take it too far and allow that new relationship glow to blind them. They allow the new relationship to become the main facet of their lives, or even the only one.

Do not make the mistake of neglecting the rest of your life when you find yourself in a relationship, no matter how serious the new union appears to be. The relationship is one meaningful aspect of your life, but is not the only one. Your classes, hobbies and friends still matter. All of the things that have always made you unique still matter. A relationship can be pleasant to have in addition to these things, but it does not take the place of them. A partner cannot do nearly as much to make you a confident and mature person as you can by remembering to live your own life.

This risk is of greatest concern for people inexperienced in relationships. If you’re in college and just now having your first real relationship, it’s very easy to let the new relationship become your entire universe. It’s easy to feel like you have to make up for all of that time you spent single while watching your friends, classmates and acquaintances running around with their significant others.

Resist that temptation. The fact that you haven’t been in a relationship before is something you can’t make up for. You can’t do anything to change it, so all you can do is enjoy the new addition to your life. Being in a relationship can be exciting, and it will be nice to gain experience relating to someone else romantically. But don’t let yourself fall into the idea that a romantic relationship is a magic panacea.

Realistically, it is also important to stay engaged in other aspects of your life because chances are that you will probably not be dating your new significant other for the rest of your life. It’s still early in your life. You are in the process of figuring out who you are and you cannot guarantee that your new love is going to be your lifelong love, but you can guarantee that you will continue to grow and thrive as a person despite whatever happens with your new love.

There is a more important and less cynical consideration to make as well. Even if the relationship does last for many years, it’s not healthy to focus your entire life on one person. After that beginning stage of your infatuation cools off into something more familiar, it becomes much harder to feel satisfied when you focus your entire life upon just one other person. You’ll realize the need to enjoy alone time, and you may struggle to get yourself back into the habit of participating on your old hobbies. You’ll also feel the need to reconnect with other people-people who may be wary to let you back into their lives if you have already spurned them in favor of that shiny new significant other.

You will also be a far more desirable partner if you stay engaged in the rest of your life while in the relationship. You and your partner will have a lot more to talk about if you each have active lives apart from each other. Insisting on spending a healthy amount of time away from your partner should him in the habit of taking advantage of that time to better himself, and you’ll both benefit from the attention you give to keeping your lives strong.

If your partner reacts badly to your desire to maintain some independence by acting either clingy or forbidding, you should have a conversation with her. Find out if her hesitance is because she is insecure or because she is controlling. If she is insecure, there is some possibility that you can assure her that this time apart will make the relationship a healthier one. If you get the feeling that her hesitance stems from an active desire to control you, however, it may be time to end the relationship and move on.

Whether you are single or in a relationship, you deserve the ability to keep your friends, your interests and your hobbies. A new relationship can be a lot of fun and a good relationship can be very edifying, but it is no substitute for being able to live an interesting life on your own terms. As tempting as it may be to let yourself be subsumed into your new relationship, don’t let it happen. Keeping other fulfilling parts of your life in your life will not only provide a safety net if the relationship fades away, but more importantly it will ensure that you remain an interesting and independent individual.

‘Tis the season to be giving, but sometimes it’s just so hard to find good gifts. Finding the perfect present can be time consuming, stressful and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be.

There’s something about the time and effort someone puts into a homemade gift. Cookies are always a winner, and a fun way to distribute them is to host a cookie bake, where everyone brings their cookie recipe to one house, bakes them and then everyone gets a doggie bag of assorted cookies to take back home.

As for more long-lasting gifts, there are plenty of options. Sure, there are tons of pictures of you and friends on Facebook, but you can’t look at them unless you’re near a computer. Print out a few and make a collage or photo album for friends-these days, there’s a real novelty in having prints.

Even a creative, artfully done gift card could make a lovely gift. Feeling really artsy? How about giving your friend a wallet made from the leftover duct tape you still have from fall move-in? (If you like the idea but don’t have the time duct tape wallets can be found at uncommongoods.com for $20; convenient, but a little steep for something made out of tape.)

If you have a chance to get off campus and shop, Urban Outfitters never fails to have eccentric, unique offerings. Edible shot glasses made of candy canes come in a set of two for $9. They have a wide array of crazy literature-crazy enough to make getting a book as a present exciting. Places like H&M also carry trinkets and accessories that are out of the ordinary.

One of the saddest things about the end of fall semester is saying goodbye to all of those friends going to study abroad. Granted, it was their choice to go off and have amazing new experiences in exotic locations, but they’ll be missing friends. These friends are the perfect candidates for something sentimental to remind them of how much they are loved by their friends back in the States.

If you want your globetrotting friend to be able to take a little piece of you with them, the photo department at Walgreen’s is a great place to start. Here you can get an assortment of items, such as stickers, mugs, stuffed animals, playing cards, calendars, frosted steins and more, printed with the picture of your choosing. All of these items cost less than $25. You could get your girlfriend a poster with that picture of the two of you having a ball in your dorm, or get her a pillowcase with Patrick Dempsey’s face on it-inside jokes are always priceless.

If you’re looking to give your soon-to-be-abroad friend something less joke-like and more practical, you can do a little research on the country she is going to and get a travel book or set of maps for the area. Does your friend have a favorite candy or other non-perishable food that she may not be able to get out of the country? Send her off with a secret stash.

Looking for something distinctly St. Louis for your friends at home? Buy local. Bissinger’s is a gourmet chocolate company that started right here and has locations throughout St. Louis (including the Galleria). St. Louis is also home to one of the country’s 12 Anheuser-Busch breweries. Visit the gift shop to purchase paraphernalia for the of-age Budweiser-enthusiast in your life.

With finals at the door (or already here), it may be easier to do all your shopping from your computer. There are tons of fun sites out there that give you the option of searching for gifts by price, occasion or recipient. For anyone and everyone, gifts.com is a good place to start. On this site, you can find good gift matches according to the personality of the recipient. Findgift.com is similar but allows you to search for specific people and occasions.

For your Jewish friends who sometimes get overwhelmed with Christmas stuff, Popjudaica.com has a plethora of funny options. Check out the Hebrew Bazooka Joe bubble gum, the “Chai Maintenance” apparel and the underwear with the word “tush” across the.well, you know.

If you really, really have no time whatsoever, there are two last resort options. The first: re-gifting. It’s doable, but be careful not to accidentally give a gift back to the person who gave it to you (it was funny when Will Ferrell did it in Old School with the bread maker, but it doesn’t go over as well in real life). The second, safer option is the school bookstore or Bear Necessities.