College is often a difficult and turbulent time for anyone, and one part of your life when you might suddenly find yourself needing to do things a little differently.
One part of the whole experience here is usually going to be that you need to try and keep yourself happy and entertained, as that way you will find that you are much more able to really enjoy the experience for what it is – and that is clearly an important thing to be able to do.
With that in mind, in this post we are going to discuss some of the ways in which you can hope to keep yourself entertained at college. All of the following could be helpful ideas for you to ensure that you are going to enjoy your college years all the more, and get more out of them too. Let’s take a look at what you may want to consider in all this.
Join A Club – Or Start One
Whatever interests you might have, there is probably a club for everything — improv, anime, rock climbing, medieval sword fighting. If none of them spark interest, start your own. Campus clubs are a great way to meet people outside your classes and add some variety to your routine. This is also a good way to build some confidence, especially if you do start your own club rather than joining an existing one.
This is going to mean that you are able to plant your flag a little, and it’s really important to make sure you are doing this. So consider whether there might be some interest you want to pursue in this way, and you might find that it helps you a great deal all in all.
Get Into Some Campus Events
Usually, there will be some events on campus going on most of the time, and you may want to consider getting into some of these at least. Of course, it’s up to you how many of them to get into, but as long as you are taking part in some of them that should help you out and make it a lot easier to keep yourself entertained. Most schools host a ton of events: movie nights, guest speakers, live music, trivia competitions, weird stuff like goat yoga — and they’re usually free. Keep an eye on bulletin boards or student apps so you don’t miss the good stuff.
You might find that you are going to meet a lot of people this way, and it could be the kind of thing that also helps you in building up some of your interests, all of which makes you a more rounded person generally.
Explore The Local Area
It’s also a good idea to not just stick to the campus itself, but to check out the local area as best as you can. There is going to be a lot there for you to see, and checking it out will help ensure that you are going to have a much better chance of keeping busy. Check out some of the coffee shops and cafes, thrift stores, hiking trails and museums, and see if there are any local shows that you might want to catch – whatever your local area has going on. You’ll usually be able to find quite a bit to do in even some of the smaller college towns, so it’s worth thinking about if you want to try and keep yourself busy.
Also, the more that you get to know the local area, the more of a guide you can be to newcomers in your next year at college, and that can be a very useful position to be in socially speaking.
Pick Up A Hobby
If you are keen to expand your set of activities that you generally engage in, you might want to consider picking up a hobby as well. This could be literally anything, from tai chi to playing bridge, but the point is that you find something that you are keen to stick to and learn and then you do so. In fact, if you can find two or three hobbies that you are keen to get into, that will be even better.
This is prime time to experiment. Learn guitar, start painting, mess around with photography, or get obsessed with chess. You’ve got freedom and probably a bit more time than you’ll have post-grad, so lean into it and you will find that you don’t regret it at all.
Stay Social
It’s a good idea to make sure you are being social, because that is an important part of college life generally. But at the same time, you should watch for social burnout in yourself, which is a very real thing that can happen. It’s all about finding the right level of socializing for you, and nobody else can tell you what that is, so you just have to feel it out for yourself.
There are all sorts of ways to be a little more social, including game nights, group dinners and late night walks, and sometimes the best entertainment can be just hanging out with each other. But don’t be pressured to be on all the time. A quiet night is often all you need, and can be much more nourishing as well.
Pick Up A Part-Time Job
If you want to find something else to do with your time, you may also want to consider getting a part-time job or a side hustle. This is a great way to ensure that you are going to have more to do, while also of course making a little extra cash, which can be really good too. So all in all, you are going to want to make sure that you are thinking about this, and it is the kind of thing that can help you to be much more entertained.
Be careful with what job you go for, and make sure it’s something that you are going to personally enjoy as well as possible, as that is going to make it a lot more fun for you. Also, ensure it really is just a part-time job, as your main focus still needs to be on your studies. Just a Saturday job is probably perfect, and is the kind of thing that is going to keep you just the right amount of busy.
Be A Little Spontaneous
Remember that college is meant to be fun, and it’s also a time to enjoy your youthful energy for what it is – so make sure that you are embracing that. Being a little bit spontaneous from time to time is going to help ensure that you are much more likely to really enjoy yourself and to find yourself taking part in some amazing things with some interesting people. That in turn will make college years so much more enjoyable, and you’ll get a lot more out of them for sure.
As you can see, there are so many things that you can think about which are going to help you to keep entertained at college, so make sure that you are remembering these and doing all you can to make use of them.
