Have you ever spent an hour reading a book, looking over your notes or quizzing yourself with flashcards, only to realize a few hours later that you don’t remember any of it?

I often find myself forgetting a conversation I had with someone that I really should remember. What’s up with this short-term memory loss? Well, maybe it’s not that we forget, but that we don’t ever really commit these things to memory.

I attended a lecture about memorization and the steps that you need to go through in order to really commit something to your long-term memory. These steps are called “The Three R’s of Memory.” We’ll analyze them as if you were studying information you would need to know for a test.

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Our friends over at Online University Review have compiled “The Ultimate Dorm Room Dieting Guide: 100 Tips, Tools & Tricks” to help you avoid college weight gain, including the avoiding the Freshman 15.

Since listing the entire guide might overwhelm our blog column, we have selected our favorite ten dorm room diet tips in no special order.

1. Too Much Sugar Makes You Crazy: Can’t eat a grapefruit without a packet of sugar? Try and do it anyway. That little extra flavor gives calories, crashing energy, and even tooth decay. Diet sweeteners aren’t much better either.
2. No Bedtime Snacks: Because your parents didn’t want you bouncing around during bed time, they wouldn’t let you eat two hours before bed. Because bedtime snacks can both add to stored calories and restless sleep, they should be avoided.

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Maybe the two of you met at summer camp just before eighth grade. Maybe you met at a high school football game or at a party, a coffee shop or at a political rally. It isn’t important where you met, but that you met. And that the sparks flew.

One of you asked the other out on a first date, where you discussed literature and movies and each other’s interests. It was a lot of fun, and you agreed to go on another date. And another. And then another.  Before long, he asked you to put your relationship on Facebook.

It was a big deal, because we all know it’s not official until it’s Facebook official.

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Dating can be a lot of fun. You get butterflies in your stomach when you think about him or her. You look forward to the text messages and phone calls. You spend a lot of time together, laughing and talking about whatever comes to mind.

But then, when it ends, it can be pretty upsetting. And even if you are not too upset about the end of the relationship, it can take time to move on and get over that person. So here are some tips for moving past a failed relationship.

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Sometimes I get a really strong urge to help others. The problem is, I don’t always know how to go about doing it. Sometimes I volunteer in my community, but other times I simply make a donation.

How to choose which organization to donate to though? That’s another problem. Man, who thought trying to do a little good in the world could be so difficult?

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My favorite part of the semester is the end. Not because I am finished with classes – although that is a plus – but because I get to sell some of my textbooks back to the bookstore and get some of my money back. Sure, I still end up spending a ton of money buying my books and coming up with a deficit no matter how much money I get by selling them, but at least I get a little cash back.

But what if there was a way to avoid the whole spending-way-too-much-money-for-books-I-plan-on-only-using-for-a-semester-anyway thing? What if I could rent my textbooks for next semester? Well, actually, I can.

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Winter break is amazing. We sleep in until noon every day, catch up on the list of books we have wanted to read, spend most of our days with family and friends, and have absolutely no responsibilities. It’s the second best time of the school year, second only to summer break because summer break lasts three months instead of one.

Sadly, winter break comes to a screeching halt in late January and we have to go back to school. It can be quite a shocking experience. Sunday you are still sleeping in until noon and spending your days completely carefree. Then Monday rolls around: Your alarm goes off at 8:00 in the morning, your first professor passes out the thickest and most demanding syllabus you have ever seen, and you are left wondering what happened to your life?

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The winter solstice officially started on December 21 in the Northern Hemisphere. If you live in the northern half of the world, that means winter is here. And this past holiday weather that took much of the country by storm is a subtle reminder of just how powerful Jack Frost can be this time of year.

Winter is a time for building snowmen, drinking hot chocolate, bundling up in big puffy jackets, and unfortunately, driving on icy roads. Driving conditions can become quite hazardous during the winter, when black ice and snow drifts plague city streets and highways.

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Going home for the holidays is wonderful. You’ve just finished finals, and all you have to do is spend time with family, eat loads of food, and catch up on the sleep you’ve been missing out on while you were at college.

But truthfully, being home for break can be a bit boring. You can only watch the same movies with your little nephew or hit the mall so many times before you the sales ladies start to know you on a first name basis. 

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The holidays are when we spend time with family and friends that we haven’t seen in a while. We sing carols, feast on delicious family favorites, and exchange gifts. It is truly a special time of the year.

But what do you do when your part-time job doesn’t give you enough extra cash to buy mom that gold necklace she wants or to buy your significant other tickets to the concert he or she has been talking about since October?

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