Space queer

This hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m still feeling a little nauseous after this realization.

A comma is used to indicate a separation of ideas or elements within a sentence. The comma has many usages that are standard and invariable in the English language. Also again, natives, this is more for people trying to perfect their English as academic writing in English is difficult when you haven’t studied the language for your whole life and been immersed from birth or whatever. 

Use a comma with a coordinating conjunction to separate independent clauses within a sentence.

A good way to remember what these coordinating conjunctions are is to memorize the term FANBOYS. It’s the term natives use when we’re little/learning to write.

For

She will be playing basketball this year, for she made the team.

And

He sings in the choir, and he plays the baritone horn in band class.

Nor

They don’t eat meat, nor do they drink milk.

But

She enjoys going out to eat, but she is looking forward to a homemade meal tonight.

Or

Everyday my parents gamble, or they drink.

Yet

I just finished my shift, yet I’m not tired.

So

The color is red, so we have to stop.

Use a comma to separate elements that introduce and modify a sentence.

Lastly, I decided to drive home. 

Before deciding where I should go to college, I need to go over my options with my counselor.

Use commas to set off nonessential or parenthetical phrases and clauses.

A nonrestrictive phrase or clause is one that can be omitted from the sentence without changing the meaning of the sentence. A parenthetical expression is a phrase that is inserted into the writer’s train of thought. Parenthetical expressions are most often set off with commas. 

Her decision, in my opinion, was not in her best interest.

She celebrated her birthday, which was in June, with a party and a chocolate cake

(The bolded section doesn’t change the meaning of the sentence when removed)

Use commas before and after an appositive.

I like this one because it’s relatively simple and we’ve all seen it! An appositive is a type of parenthetical phrase that directly renames or relabels the noun it describes.

Barack Obama, President of the United States, is set to leave office later this January. 

You, Janet, are a good doctor!

(Again note that the sentence still stands without what’s written between the commas!)

Use a comma to set off an interjection.

Well, it’s about time that you got here!

Say, did you pass the test?

Use commas to separate coordinate adjectives.

If two adjectives modify a noun in the same way, they are called coordinate adjective

I use these a lot, especially in the way I speak(usually for emphasis). However, I plan to use them more in my writing, as I wasn’t really sure how to incorporate them until a few weeks ago. These are statements that can be joined together by and, but instead are separated by a comma. 

My cousin received a dedicated, signed copy of her favorite book.

“My cousin received a dedicated and signed copy of her favorite book.” 

Oxford comma

While in lower levels of English, I was told it wasn’t important whether or not I used the oxford comma, but now in higher level English I’ve been told otherwise. Always use the oxford comma. There is no situation where you don’t have to. 

I ate biscuits, bread, and a bagel (oxford comma = comma before “and” or “or” when listing objects/people/etc.)

There are other aspects to using commas but for the most part the others come naturally, as they are typically used in dates and introductions. I highly encourage finding better sources, this is more of a brief introduction to using commas perfectly. 

Wicked-Elpheba Thropp x Galinda Uplander

Don’t compare yourself to other students. Just don’t do it. Because of your mental health, there will always be things that are more difficult for you than other students. Waking up early, keeping track of assignments, staying focused and motivated, socializing outside of class, joining clubs. All of these are things that can be harder for students with mental illness. It’s important to just pay attention to yourself and make sure you’re meeting the goals you set for yourself.

Walk as much as you can. Go for short walks around campus, walk to class instead of taking the bus or driving, walk around the library in between studying. Just get up and walk. It’s important to get in exercise where you can and walking is a great way to boost endorphins.

Know the attendance policy for each of your classes. Within the first week of class try to figure out how each professor takes attendance. Is it at the beginning of class, end of class? Is there a seating chart (seriously) or is it just writing in your name? Is there a daily quiz? Perfect attendance isn’t always attainable so it’s important to know not only how many days you can miss or be late, but how you can get around that. If you’re just having a bad mental health day it’s good to know when you can get a friend to sign you in so you don’t lose attendance points.

Have a “backup buddy” in each of your classes. On the first day of class or at least before the first test, make sure you get the phone number and email of two classmates. Not only is it good to meet new people, these are the people who will be your lifeline. Did you miss class or just completely zone out and need the notes? Do you need someone to sign you in? Did you abandon your bullet journal and forget all of the due dates? It’s crucial that you have TWO people you can reach (in case one or the other can’t help you) when you have a question you can’t ask your professor.

Know your professors!!! Introduce yourself first day of class (so it can be short and sweet) or go during office hours (so there aren’t a lot of people). Professors are a lot more willing to help you out if you’ve at least tried to establish a relationship with them. You’ll be closer with some more than others but if you ever have to send out a panicked email it’s important your professor can put a face to the name. If you ever have an emergency and need an extension it’s a lot more likely to get one this way. Bonus: also get to know your TA or GA if they’re the ones grading your assignments.

Take your medicine, see your therapist/psychiatrist. College is too stressful to go without the medical treatment that you need. If you can’t afford treatment, most universities have counseling clinics where you can get free or cheap treatment from grad students. Many university health centers also have psychiatrists you can see cheaply. At my university I see a grad student LPC for free and get to see a psychiatrist for $10 an appointment. Your therapist can also write letters in case your professor or school needs proof of treatment or anything like that.

Register with your school’s disability services. I’ve met a lot of students with depression or anxiety who had no idea that disability could apply to them. Mental illness is a disability! Registering with Disability is invaluable. You can get access to tutoring, support groups, peer mentors, and most importantly: accommodations. If you get really bad test anxiety you can arrange to take your test privately either proctored by someone in disability services or in your professor’s office. Extensions can sometimes be made for assignments in case you have an emergency like a panic attack or other life disrupting episode. 

Whether you need accommodation or not, I strongly urge you to register with disability in case something happens. If you need to drop your classes or were unable to and end up failing because of your health, being registered with disability can mean your bad semester can be “forgiven,” essentially meaning you can go on medical leave.

Have a family member or friend for a support system. Outside of your therapist or DS, have someone who you can vent to. Have someone to buy you ice cream and tell you everything is going to be okay. Have someone who can tell you you’re beautiful and perfect the way you are, whether that’s your mom or even someone on tumblr. There are people all around who care about you.

I’ve updated the Textbooks page, as Slugbooks has changed how you search for textbooks.

I recommend using the College Problems textbook website if you want to search by your course number/professor. Otherwise, Slugbooks is perfectly good to use if you have received your class syllabus already.

IF YOU DON’T THINK THAT PURCHASING YOUR TEXTBOOKS ONLINE IS A GOOD IDEA, HEAR ME OUT!

You will spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on textbooks at your school bookstore. There’s a good chance you will never open that book again after the first week of classes. My freshman year of college, I spent $600 a SEMESTER on textbooks from the school bookstore. That’s $1,200 A YEAR on textbooks.

Today I used the College Problems Textbooks link (seen on the Textbooks page), and I will be spending a little over $40 on textbooks this spring semester. ONLY $40!!! Compared to $600 a semester, that’s pocket change.

alright, so I know that I don’t have that many followers, but maybe some of you can benefit from this. Plus, hey maybe it’ll spread around! (sorry its so long; i bolded some things so those are key points)

So college, it’s fun and terrifying and there’s so much that you have to decide on. Lemme impart some wisdom on you after a few semesters of doing this (one semester.. i’m a freshman)

Housing: Think about who you are as a person. Housing should be a simple thing like oh hey I like this room let me live there, but no. Housing is how you make friends (mainly). If you have more than one option for housing look at all of them, deeply! IT IS HOW YOU MAKE FRIENDS.

There are styles to housing:

*Hall Style: there’s you and another person in one room surrounded by other rooms with 2 people. All the rooms are down, guess what, a hall. This is good if you want a bathroom with like 3 toilets and 5 showers to share with people.

Also there’s a bunch of people to meet, IF!! (and this is a big if) you live on a hall of people who are willing to socialise. I am not; nobody has their door open and I am not friends with any of them. I know 5 people on my hall. That’s it.

I’ve noticed that the higher up you go, the more people are willing to socialise. So! if you have the the option for a comments section in your housing profile and don’t mind climbing stairs, put the request for NOT A GROUND FLOOR. just trust me on that one.

*Suite Style: here you’ve got one person in the room with you and you share this little hallway or common space with like 4 other rooms with 2 people in them each and one bathroom between all of you (there’s usually like 2 toilets and 2 showers).

This is great if you are shy. LEMME TELL YOU! you will automatically have like 10 people that you have to meet and know and talk to. boom you’ve got a friend group! It’s easy and you’re definitely going to meet someone that you’ll like even if you hate your roommate. The downside is that sometimes you will only interact with people in your suite.

Again, request that you’re not on a ground floor. The RA’s are usually cooler and its a more chill and friendly environment. It’s a complex im telling you.

*The Questionnaire: If your college has a housing questionnaire, think about everything. You don’t have to be completely honest; messy to you is clean to another, late to you is normal to someone else. I think that the questionnaire is less of who you are and more of who you want to be paired with.

Mine was super vague. It just asked early to bed? Y N, early riser? Y N, and stuff like that. Listen, if you go to bed before like 1 or midnight, you are early to bed. My roommate is not early to bed and she goes to sleep at 3 (and gets pissed when i ask to turn out the lights at 2). I highly recommend just putting early riser. If you get put with someone who wakes up at 6 in the morning, you can go back to sleep, plus they won’t be getting up at 6 for much longer, college does that to you. Also people who get up early are less likely to be grouchy people, so just put it.

Random roommates can be good if you try to make sure that you get a good roommate. Use that comment section. Go ahead and say please pair me with someone older or pair me with a chem major or please not an art student. Don’t worry about being rude or think that you’re asking for too much. That’s where you live; make it how you want it.

Classes: it’s tough, but it can be fun. Get your study groups. Talk to the people around you. Don’t worry about coming off weird for striking up conversations or asking for someone’s number. Both of you will benefit from it. Just do it.

It’s okay if you don’t pass one of you classes. It happens; retake the class if you need to; move on.

Try to take classes you like. If all the classes for your major make you want to die, don’t major in it! The best piece of advice I ever got was from my lovely advisor (get to know those people, they will save your life). “Major in what you like and what you’re good at. You have to take classes on it for 4 years and then keep doing those things for 80 more years, be good at what you do.”

Meet your professors. Go in a few times for office hours and always say good morning/how are you/how’s your day been/happy holidays/etc. It makes you and your prof be closer even if it is just formalities. Some students are asses; don’t be like them.

Study. Take the time. Try many ways of studying. You’ll probably find that how you studied in high school won’t work for you in college. If you find that you have to study for hours, then do it. There is no shame in how you study. Make those grades. Get a good GPA. It feels goood.

You: you will change. Being away from your parents and having freedom to eat when you want and sleep when you want and be with who you want will change you.

If you have struggled with depression, college will not “fix” you. You might get more depressed, you might not. Go to counseling. Workout (working out gives you endorphins and endorphins make you happy). Talk to people about it; they will listen and understand.

Try out for that thing. You’d be surprised at what happens. Maybe you won’t get the lead role, maybe you won’t make it on the team you wanted to be, but maybe you will. Try it.

You’re going to get nostalgic. It happens to everyone and it has been for a long time. My parents told me about how they got nostalgic after their first year. Friends have told me that they were nostalgic after the first semester. There is nothing wrong with you and it doesn’t mean anything about your college experience. Go watch that TV show you loved, go play that game you played as a kid. Just also do your work and be present.

All in all, College isn’t terrible and it’s definitely not what you expect. Yes college will change you but it won’t fix you. Do what you need to in order to be happy (except drugs and alcohol, dabble but don’t become addicted, be careful). Talk to people, yes it’s tough but just do it. Be present. Be kind. Study. Try to have fun.

At the age of 11, you learned that perfection does not always mean a flat tummy and a thigh gap. Go on and eat that second piece of cookie that you crave so much.

At the age of 12, you learned that just because you call her “mom” and him as “dad,” it doesn’t mean they inherently know how to be that. Also, suicide poison is not the cure for everything, it’s not a cure at all.

At the age of 13, you learned the difference between giving up and taking a rest. You might have given it your all but not make it. Remember to disregard everything that comes after but.

At the age of 14, you learned that standing up for everyone else does not mean that all of them will stand up for you when you need someone. Not one of them would be the first one to defend you, that spot is reserved for your name.

At the age of 15, you learned that people rarely mean what they say even if as a writer, you deem each and every word important. Learn to know the voices that speak sincerity and the voices that are just trying to get into your pants.

At the age of 16, you learned that letting go of people that only brings toxicity in your life is never a crime. Thinking about your own peace of mind does not make you selfish. Neither does placing yourself above that last number on your priority list.

At the age of 17, you learned that giving yourself to everyone willing could only lead to one thing: your own’s deterioration. Dear, you are more precious than someone who can’t even look into your eyes in the morning.

At the age of 18, you learned that loving and accepting yourself are two different things. Placing yourself in situations you are well aware of your self distraction is never loving yourself.

At the age of 19, you learned that lovers are not the only ones that can break your heart. People stay and go for a reason. Remember to treasure the rightful ones that life allowed to stay.

You’re 20 now and life has never been what you expected and planned it to be and that’s possibly the greatest thing that can happen into your life. You’re a writer but life writes with you, know when to let it leave significant marks and know when your own pen should be the one doing so.

written by bleakfantasies,  writing prompt #62: list 10 pieces of advice you’d give yourself