Though in high school you would spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in class (not even taking into account extracurriculars), most students in college spend only about 15 to 20 hours in a classroom. Once you’ve started college, that gives you at least another 20 hours outside of the classroom you didn’t have prior. With all that free time you now have, you will likely spend most of it studying, but sometimes you need to recharge and relax by yourself or with your friends. While you’re more than welcome to just casually stream a movie or scroll on your phone, it would feel much more rewarding if you were to engage in a hobby—bonus points if that activity might look good on your future resume. Read below for some recreations that our Nerdify reviews experts say might help you with a job interview in the future.

1. Photography

Thanks to the incredible quality of cameras on today’s phones, picking up photography is accessible for many, and a great motivator to get out of your dorm room and explore outside. You can take pictures around campus, portraits of your friends, or pretend to be a tourist in your college town and snap photos at all the kitschy spots—skilled photographers can even take pictures of the mundane and make them look interesting. While tapping the shutter button on your phone is obviously the easiest way to take pictures, there is great fun and novelty to taking film photos. The photos taken on film can have a warm, grainy feeling that many try to emulate through filters on their digital images. You can buy disposable cameras at your nearest pharmacy or even find a cheap vintage camera at a thrift store to load up with film.

Developing a knack for photography (either digital or film) would be an invaluable skill to bring into the workforce in many different fields. For one, you could either take photos as a freelancer, or work for another company with specialties such as weddings, portraits, commercials, journalism, and more. Talents honed through your time snapping pictures would even be relevant in fields such as social media management, which require an eye for images that would get good engagement.

2. Content Creation

Though it can vary in its forms, creating content is formulating a type of media (usually digital) to share online with others. For example, you can make TikToks doing the latest dance trends with friends, tell whacky stories about your life, or share adorable clips of your pets. Or, if you have a special interest such as film, fashion, or gastronomy, you can craft a blog or reviews on Reddit discussing your thoughts on and experiences with a particular topic.
Similar to our earlier discussion on social media, showing that you can generate an audience to follow your content would make you stand out against others competing for digital marketing roles. This is especially true for TikTok and forums like reviews on Reddit, as many businesses are scratching their heads at the platforms, having difficulty generating engaging content relevant to their brand.
On a separate note, if you would like to work in journalism, copywriting, copy editing, and so on, being able to send potential employers writing samples from a blog would be fantastic, say our Nerdify reviews experts. The media format shows job recruiters your aptitude to write outside of an academic setting and the flexibility of your authorial voice.

3. Traditional Arts

Regardless of whether or not you take fine arts classes towards your degree, making crafts is a wonderful pastime. While taking up hobbies such as sculpture or ceramics are very fulfilling, there is a learning curve to the medium, and buying and storing equipment can be cumbersome. However, mediums such as drawing or graphic design are much more affordable and reasonable in the number of tools required.
Acquiring artistic skills in these mediums is relevant to a surprising number of careers—graphic design, obviously, but also user experience (U.X.) designers, product developers, artistic directors, and more. As art forms grow alongside advancements in technology, our Nerdify reviews experts say being at the forefront of new developments would set you apart from others.

4. Intramural Sports

While you wouldn’t have the time or expertise to pick up a new sport and play at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) level, your college likely has intramural teams, which are held solely within your college. These are much more casual leagues, and your school might even host unique sports such as kickball, or even Quidditch (a derivative of the once-fictional sport from the Harry Potter series). Additionally, if there is a sport you and some friends want to play that doesn’t yet have a team, you can make one yourself as a club and recruit other like-minded students.

Not only does exercising help your physical and mental health—which are essential in the workforce and in life—but our Nerdify reviews experts report playing a sport can come in handy with landing a job. Interviewers will often ask what experience you have working on a team towards a common goal, so being able to pull examples from your time spent playing sports would be a perfect example.

And here we go again with most cheesy college topics! Today our favorite rubric Nerdify Reviews will bring some light on co-living issues.

Living with a roommate at college or university can be a lot of fun and an experience that you will miss the most when you graduate, yet things will not always go smoothly and you may encounter several roommate problems. In order to help you survive through the college, we have collected the most common troubles and the ways how to solve them! 

1. Your roommate is way too messy (or way too clean)!

Without a doubt, we all have our personal considerations regarding being clean and messy, which makes it highly likely that your roommate’s opinion may differ from yours. The best way, however, is to make little compromises and discuss the most challenging moments as they come up. When someone acts sloppy and does not seem to care for keeping the place clean, try to see if you can approach the problem on your own and share some tips about keeping the room clean in a light-hearted and fun manner. If this does not work for you and the roommate continues being messy, try to discuss the problem openly and share the responsibilities, so you both share certain tasks that simply have to be done.

Sometimes you may appear to be a little bit messy or your roommate is crazy about keeping the room clean. Well, while it is a good thing to keep everything tidy, it should not go overboard. If you are trapped in such situation, do your best to take some time to throw the dirty laundry into a bin, keep your side of the room tidy, and make little pleasant surprises for your tidy roommate to show that you really care!

2. Your roommate uses your belongings without permission!

Now this problem can be really stressful as it is a privacy intrusion and a trouble that has to be dealt with! Remember that even if the intentions of your college roommate are not always bad and mean, it is still an issue that has to be discussed to make sure that you understand privacy and a list of personal belongings the same way! Living with a roommate is like living with a sibling, so things often get borrowed without a second thought. Still, you have to discuss the boundaries and do your best to build a good relationship. You do not have to lock things up and worry about expensive clothes or your laptop. The key to success is discussing your position and making sure that there are no words left unspoken. Just talk it out and say what is alright to do from time to time and what things will not be tolerated. In case nothing helps and your roommate ignores your requests, ask the college counselor for help.

3. A “Third roommate” college problem!

While bringing in a boyfriend to the college room can be a lot of fun, there are still some rules and restrictions that you have to remember! As you share a relatively small space with your roommate, you can have a guest and it is alright, but it should not be a fun place to hang out all the time. If you have to deal with a roommate who thinks that it is okay to let his or her friends be there all the time, it can easily become a problem!

As always, communication is the key to addressing the problem right and avoiding the conflict. No, you do not really have to tell your friend to kick a friend out immediately, but it is perfectly fine to remind that your room is a shared space where you have to study and have some private space and quiet. If nothing works, try to come to an agreement and make a schedule to agree on the times when both of you are fine with having friends over or when one of you would go home or stay over at friends for the weekend. If you have to get ready for an exam and you just cannot concentrate, make sure to let your roommate know. Try to become the best friends and care for each other as you have fun, but remember that you are the hosts in a little college world, so the guest is a guest and not a new roommate after all!

4. Your roommate has different sleeping habits!

And yes, this is one of the crucial things in co-living, that’s why Nerdify reviews it as well. We all know the feeling when you are up early in the morning and your roommate likes to have some sleep and prefers to stay up late at night to study, listen to music, and basically feel good! As a caring roommate, you do not want to disturb and take the best care of a situation, yet you do not know how to find the right balance between your needs.

Speaking from our experience, the solution is going to the public library or to a student’s cafe if you want to study in peace. If you want to hear some music or talk to a friend, you can easily go to the public area where it is alright to make some noise. Likewise, if you want to get some precious sleep and your roommate has other plans, make sure to speak clearly and explain that there are special study rooms and the common areas a college student can visit to relax and have fun. As you seek a compromise, share your study schedules and see what solutions you may find to let both of you have a good sleep and fun at the end of the day!

5. Your roommate is acting mean!

Even if you have all the schedules and sleep patterns in agreement and take care of each other’s belongings, there are still odd troubles that may come up! Sometimes your problem with a roommate may become an issue for no obvious reason. In most cases, it is enough to talk about the problem and let things cool off without a conflict. Yet, if your relationship with a mean roommate starts to affect you physically and mentally, the best thing to do is turn to a mediator by talking to the college counseling officer. If there is a problem and you cannot get by on your own, seek for professional help! It is perfectly normal to have an unbiased third party individual to help both of you to see where the problem lies without a damage to your life and an academic success!

6. Your roommate is never there!

While there may be several reasons for your roommate’s absence, the fact may become a problem for you. Either you may feel lonely or find yourself in a situation when you need some support, your roommate’s presence in the room is an important point. It may be that your roommate is missing home and tries to be away from the college, yet in the other cases, your roommate may be dealing with a peer pressure or a way too controlling boyfriend that affects her college life. Finally, your roommate may be in trouble, so it is very good to talk to a college counselor if you think that there is a problem that should be reported.

In any case, try to be as careful as you can and make sure that your decision is ethical. Remember that your roommate may just feel embarrassed to talk and not know how to share the same space with a college mate. Be the one to make the first step and trust your heart!

7. Your roommate is always in the room!

Now, this is the opposite of a previous problem, so let us think what can be done! If your college roommate seems to be always there, try to get your friend involved and tell about all the existing college clubs and fun activities. Encourage him or her to do something special and tell of your own responsibilities. If you are a musician or an athlete, share your passion and invite your roommate along!

Of course, it may be that a college room is a special place where your roommate feels safe! Nevertheless, try to make your roommate feel good about college life. Tell about all the nice cafes and the libraries to study at, the parks, and the shops with lots of student deals, so your friend may become interested and leave you in the room on your own (or come along)!

No matter what your roommate problem is, remember that the best way is to talk it out and avoid keeping it all inside! All members of the awesome Nerdify reviews team agree that it always right just to talk to your roommate, be there, stay empathic, respectful, and caring because it will always let you remember college life as a precious experience and time!

Have a good one!

You might be smiling wide as you are reading this post composed by Nerdify reviews because 2020 has been a challenging year when so many of our plans did not come true. Wearing a mask, learning online, staying apart, and talking to friends via Skype has been very far from what we have anticipated. Nevertheless, it is high time to think about some plans for 2021! We are certain that the world’s situation will definitely improve, which means that our brains will have to keep engaged and filled with all the great ideas!

Plan Your Travel Trip
It cannot be denied that the most anticipated thing in 2021 is the travel ban lift. As the various restrictions have not been removed yet, think about the best travel locations both locally and internationally. According to our Nerdify reviews team, most people do not even know about great places to visit locally because we are often ignoring them. If you still want to travel internationally, think about keeping your documents and immunization card ready in advance. We also recommend learning more about the country you are planning to visit and learn at least the basic phrases. You will thank us later!

Visit Local Museums
Somehow we have learned more about various museums in 2020 than we ever did before. Our experts at Nerdify reviews recommend visiting at least one local museum once they will be open again. Since museums and the cinemas seem to be among the first to close down because of the Covid-19 restrictions, they also suffer the most. While the movie industry will recover, it is not that easy for the museums. Show your support by paying a visit and taking your friends along with you.

Make a List of Top 10 Things to Do in 2021
We are all different, which means that our dreams and aspirations will vary from person to person. Of course, we all have planned so much as 2019 was coming to an end. Hopefully, our plans for 2021 will finally come true. Think about composing a top-10 list of all the things that you would like to do. It can be visiting a ball game, meeting your college friends at the party, subscribing to some music festival with your band, or finally meeting someone whom you could not see in person because of restrictions.

Join Some Volunteering Teams
Starting a new year is always unusual because we feel totally new and hope that many great and exciting things will happen. Our Nerdify reviews team recommends joining some volunteering. It can be anything from environmental protection to a literature club that helps young readers all over the world receive books. Living through social distancing in 2020, many people have finally learned to appreciate what we have and what we could not have. Becoming a volunteer will help you to make this world a much better place.

Create a Resume
This part is often ignored because we only think about the composition of a good CV when we are looking for a job or need to impress the college admission committee. The practice shows that once we are trapped in a situation like that, we are always in a hurry and do not take enough time to think about our skills and achievements. Think about creating a resume now without hurry or any pressure. Make a list of your achievements, think about what makes you different, and have it all ready in advance!

Apply for a Scholarship
Regardless if you are already a college student or only plan on getting enrolled, explore various scholarships. If you belong to an underprivileged family or require additional financial assistance for a great project that you came up with, you can seek the possibilities and help yourself. Some college scholarships are quite unusual and only require writing an essay about changing the world. Since you can participate in more than one competition, give it a try!

Start Learning Something New
Nothing beats mastering something new. Think about learning a foreign language, joining a music band, focusing more on your hobbies, or joining one of the free online courses that relate to your college major. Take one step at a time and do something that you haven’t done before! If you are not a college student yet, make sure to explore the possibilities and learn more about different professions.

Life Always Flows On

Remember to have fun as the holiday season comes up. It is only natural to dream and make plans. Do not become stuck on a single idea and learn how to think outside the box. Talk to your friends online, challenge yourself, and the new horizons will always open up sooner or later as life always flows just like a river!