#school for the week ends by 12:30 but i have an org meeting sometime in the afternoon

[noxtivagus]

oh no it's 5 am 😭

[canaryatlaw]

okay, so. most of the day was fairly boring lol as expected but tonight of course was super awesome. I had set a 1 pm wake up if you’re not already awake alarm but I ended up waking up to my phone buzzing right at 11 am, it was a Chicago number so I answered and chatted with this guy from this legal company that does boring shit like document review and is doing like part time temporary hiring projects, which would obviously be a short term fix as I’m still looking for full time employment, but they pay like $20 an hour (and you don’t technically have to be licensed for some of their stuff, so being that I am licensed I miiiiiight get to do some more intense stuff for more pay? Idk, have to see) so I have an 11 am Skype interview scheduled with them for tomorrow morning to chat about that stuff. I’m obviously not like dying to get this job or anything but it’d be nice to have some income while I’m still looking, like if I did like 15-20 hours a week that’s $300-$400 so that’s not insignificant. I’m just gonna be super upfront with them about the fact that I’m seeking permanent employment and if I start anything with them there is a solid chance I will up and leave with fairly short notice, and if they’re not okay with that then we won’t do it, but I get the feeling since a lot of their shit is short term they’ll probably be okay with it. So after I got off that phone call I looked up the number for Ulta and called them to push back my haircut appointment which was booked for 12, I was trying to do think if there was somewhere I could plant myself downtown and do a Skype interview to then just run to the appointment but I obviously don’t want to do like, starbucks, and beyond trying to sneak into my old student org office at school (that’s no longer mine obviously) there’s not very many options, so I was hoping we could just push the haircut back a bit till like 2 and she happened to have an opening then so that was perfect because she gets booked up fairly consistently, so I lucked out there. After that I was lazy and went on my phone for a bit before getting up and going on my laptop at the kitchen table while I ate breakfast and then eventually moved over to the couch and was just listening to podcasts while on my computer for a while, then ended up watching the pilot of the new amazon prime show “Hanna” that’s not actually premiering to March but they were making the pilot available for like 24 hours after the superbowl for some reason and I was fairly intrigued by that (I never did actually see the movie its based on) and it was okay I guess? I wasn’t like super enthralled in it but I may give it a try for a few episodes when it comes out. The main actress is pretty good, but she’s a lot older than I thought she was (she actually turns 19 like, today) when I thought she was more like 13 or 14. and she’s apparently not been in much of anything up to this point, so good for her. After that I just turned the tv off and listened to more Panic music since I downloaded a bunch last night on top of what I downloaded after the concert last week so I could be more familiar with that while doing some computer stuff and trying to get some more Batwoman comic reading done. I was trying to see what they had on DC Universe before switching over to Comixology (which I have to pay for) but they only have issues 1-12 of her new 52 run which is apparently significantly longer than that and I burned through those very quickly, and the other ones on there are basically just one-off appearances in a random Batman story. So I guess I’ll read those then see what I can get on Comixology (they apparently have a subscription thing now which may be more affordable than paying for each comic, I’ll have to see what’s the deal with that). Around 4:30 I started getting ready, tried to do my make up very carefully and ended up trying to use my liquid eyeliner on my bottom lid which I normally don’t do but I like accidentally got some on there when trying to get it on my top lid (not sure how I managed to do that) and wanted to see if I could do the rest. It turned out pretty good in the immediate aftermath at least, but when I got home it had migrated down my face a good bit which is basically my biggest pet peeve with black eyeliner so I probably won’t be doing that again (I’m gonna see if I can find a better one at Ulta/Sephora tomorrow, since I’ll be at the Ulta and there’s a Sephora down the street and I want to find something that’s a Sephora brand product. There’s apparently also a Sally’s around there which I may also hit up for some hair dyeing supplies). But I finished getting ready and got on the bus at like 5:30 to meet Jess at her work so we could go straight to the concert from there, I was supposed to get there slightly before she got off so she could use it as an excuse to leave but the bus was being uncooperative (as public transit often is) and I ended up not getting there until like right when she got off, but it wasn’t a big deal because we weren't really in a rush being that we knew Panic didn’t actually take the stage until like, 8:30 lol. We stopped at a mcdonalds drive thru on the way where we got twenty nuggets, two cokes, and a medium fries (it’s always a debate about how many nuggets to get, because Jess is like “but I want more than 10″ when we’re splitting 20 but it’s more expensive to order 30 nuggets than it would be to order 40 nuggets and that’s just way too many (we did try that once) so I was saying we could do a 20 and a 6 piece but ended up just going with the 20 for us to split. Drove the rest of the way out, the concert was out by the airport which is a bit of a hike but we’re used to going there because most Chicago cons are in a venue that’s right by there. There was fairly massive traffic getting into the venue, and we had some momentary panic (no pun intended) regarding paying for parking because we didn't have any cash and didn’t know if they’d take card, but luckily they did so that crisis was averted. of course it’s bullshit that they’re charging $25 to just park in their giant ass parking lot, but that’s life for ya. Once we parked we had to kinda run to the venue because it was cold and we were both bumming it without our regular coats (I had a leather jacket on) so we were happy when we got in there. Got in without issue, climbed up the stairs to the top level of course and found our seats. We were literally like, the furthest section back on the side before the other seats just weren’t sold because you couldn’t be able to see (the other half of our section was actually closed off) but despite that we actually had a fairly good view and could see most of everything, just mostly from a side view and sometimes the back, lol. I was pumped though because I spent like all of last week wishing I could relive the concert and now I was getting to do that, so I was very excited. The new perspective was interesting, we got to see things from different angles which was interesting, like him popping up onto the stage when he first came out and just jumps up so it looks like he just gets shot out at fairly high speed lol. The set list was the same of course, except I’ve been listening to the music all week and actually knew the vast majority of the songs this time and could sing along, so I felt accomplished for that. I did manage to take a good amount of videos that I posted all on my instagram story if you want to check those out (@ racheleiley) and this time I didn’t ugly sing while recording lol so they’re better quality than the ones from last week. But yeah it was really good, I still got super anxious and cringey when he was on the floating piano above the crowd and very clearly not strapped into anything and like, going to the edge of the platform and I like, couldn’t watch because it stressed me out too much lol but thankfully he made it back okay. When Girls/Girls/Boys came on we hadn’t gotten the little paper colored hearts to put over our cell phone lights this time because we were in the reject section that was mostly empty, but it was still enjoyable and he definitely had no less than 10 pride flags thrown onstage at him during it which he picked every single one up and draped them over him and he was like “this is a record” which was great. But yeah, I really enjoyed all of it. When he came back out for the encore someone threw a little teddy bear onstage and he was like “aw, this is the cutest teddy bear, I’m keeping this” and put it in his back pocket as he kept performing and it was really fucking cute lol. He must be in really good shape to be doing this sometimes multiple times a week because it’s so much energy expended and his voice is so strong to be able to handle it (makes sense that he did a stint on Broadway). But yeah, I enjoyed it a lot and got much better videos this time so I’m pleased with that. Once it ended we managed to get out of the parking lot relatively quickly, definitely a lot quicker than we expected because we kinda cut around part of the line to get to the exit faster (sorry not sorry 🤷🏻‍♀️) and then made it the rest of the way home, and Jess made me walk back to my place from her apartment instead of dropping me off which she could’ve VERY EASILY done, but she was being a butt and trying to get payback because she always has to make the walk when we hang out at my place (which we do the vast majority of the time). So I walked home, thankfully it wasn’t too cold, and then spent a while uploading the videos to my instagram story because it was being uncooperative while at the concert so I had to do them all after. My roommate got home shortly after I did and somehow managed to leave her keys in the front door, but now our front door wouldn’t unlock, so she was gonna go around the back to get to the front and asked if I had my front door key, which I thought she meant the front door to our apartment, so I gave her that she disappeared. Not long after I could hear someone calling my name so I went to the front door and was like ??? yes??? but she wasn’t at the door and I was thoroughly confused as to where she could be until it occurred to me that maybe she was locked outside, so I went down the backstairs to the back door where she was in fact stuck, we had a slight miscommunication on the key situation and she couldn’t get the front door of the building to open because I gave her the wrong key, whoops, but we got it figured out and fixed the door situation so that was good. After that was settled I got in the shower and started getting ready for bed and now I am here. I’ve been writing this post for about 40 minutes and it’s now 2 am, I have to get up at at least 10:30 tomorrow to make sure I’m presentable for the Skype interview so I think I should get to bed now. Goodnight loves. Have a lovely Tuesday.

[dasfreefree]

I’m going to your alma matter next year. Words of advice? Is it as bad as I think it is?

Hey, congrats! I loved TCNJ and definitely miss it. I’m not sure exactly what part you worry might be bad, but your experience is what you make of it. Also note that my experience is largely coming in with credits from AP and Honors classes, and with the English department and living on campus through junior year and then living off-campus senior year.

All of the general college advice posts and articles online will apply with some variation, of course

Participate in some student organizations, Greek life, service organizations, etc. I can’t speak for Greek life and service orgs, but I was heavily active with two clubs, and spent some time in other clubs on occasion. They were really important to my growth academically and creatively, but they were also where I met a lot of my friends. You don’t have to be as involved in them as I was–but being a club officer is incredibly rewarding and gives you a ton of experience in leadership–, but having something to look forward to each week outside of class was really important.

Don’t feel limited to joining something related to your area(s) of study or desired career. TCNJ has a TON of organizations, so feel free to use that time to do something fun or worthwhile to you that you wouldn’t be able to make time for otherwise. A thing I really admired about TCNJ is that they usually don’t have classes on Wednesdays until the evening so that there’s free time during the week for clubs to meet

If smaller classes aren’t your speed, you might need to consider transferring.Classes at TCNJ are about the same size as a typical high school class. I think they automatically cap at 30 or 31 students as the classrooms aren’t capable of holding much more than that. You’re not going to get that lecture hall experience.

Get as many liberal learning requirements not relative to your major(s)/minor(s) out of the way as you can and do them as early as possible. If a class works for you and your schedule and covers a few different LL areas, take it. I got lucky in that most LIT classes covered one or more area, so I knocked both program and LL requirements out with just a few classes. Not everyone is as lucky, though.

The tutoring center is free. If your struggling, take advantage of it.

GO TO THE FREE EVENTS. Not only are they fun and/or informative, but they usually have free food and you get to meet people. In other cases, you might learn something from them too and get to hear from some fascinating people.

If your professor or major/department requires attending certain events, get them done early in the semester. However, if you find you like these events, don’t stop going to them, especially as the semester winds down. Whoever runs these events depends on attendance numbers to help them gauge the kinds of events they want to run in the future. If you want to see more of it, support it. Go to as many as you can. Your tuition is paying for most or all of them anyway, so you might as well take advantage of them.

GO TO THE BIG-NAMED EVENTS CUB RUNS. CUB and other organizations on campus will bring awesome speakers, comedians, and musicians to campus all the time and they’re people you’ve heard of as well. When I was there: Paramore, John Mulaney, Laverne Cox, Panic at the Disco, 21 Pilots, Nick Offerman, Kesha, are Janet Mock are just a few guests we had on campus my time there that you probably know about. These events will either be free or you will have to pay a really small price for a ticket. I think at most, they were $25 when I was there and that was between 2012-2016. The bigger the name, the quicker the tickets sell out though.

Not sure what your meal plan is, but budget your points accordingly. They roll over from fall semester to spring semester of one academic year, but they do not roll over from year-to-year. If you really need to burn points, hit up the Stud, Libcafe, or TDubs with friends and offer to pay.

Meal equiv is your friend, but the lines are a nightmare. 11:30 to 12:30 was meal equiv’s busiest time when I was there, since most 10 am classes end at 11:20 and people want food after or people want lunch before their 12:30 classes. If you can do lunch after 12:30, do meal equiv then. If the phrase “meal equiv” means nothing to you now, it will within a few days of starting.

A really good way to earn some easy money is to find a job on campus, but do it FIRST thing in the semester, as those positions fill up fast. Seriously, I worked as a lab assistant for the engineering department, which basically entailed me walking around the labs once every hour to write down how many people were in them. Sometimes I would put away small equipment that students forgot to put away when they left. None of what was required of me ever took more than 15-20 minutes spread across a four hour shift. I really got paid minimum wage to sit there and do my homework. These jobs should be listed in the job portal somewhere on TCNJ’s site.

The library is NOT the only quiet place you can get work done and group study rooms there aren’t the only place your group needs to meet. Every dorm and most academic buildings have a lounge or lounges you can use. Sometimes they’re busy or have an event going on, but they work just fine otherwise. Even the Stud at off-hours is a good place to sit and do homework. These are good ESPECIALLY during midterms and finals because you’re going to be hard hit to find a group study rooms open at the library unless you get there when it opens. You’re even allowed to use open classrooms to do work or meet with groups as long as the door is unlocked.

You probably will have a tough time getting a seat in the Libcafe, especially near an outlet. That’s typical there. You’re better off just getting your food/drink and going somewhere else. 

I didn’t want this to get too long, but if my fellow TCNJ peeps have some advice to add, feel free! @cellamare @spin-me-a-tapestry @wigglytata @julzah7 @etelephone @minieral @uta-garuta