10 Cute Student Planners You Cannot Resist Using

Let’s talk student planners. I’ve been using planners since high school, though I admit it was for the wrong reasons (i.e. I reached that school supply shopping high and cute planners combined with my love for pretty stationery made it impossible to resist each year). However, since transitioning into my college years planners have been incorporated into my school routine and without them, I would not have been able to juggle my academics, nursing school applications, or study abroad applications. I owe my sanity to planners and believe that they are one of the best investments you can make to sharpen your organizational and time management skills.

As cute as some planner are, they are not just for display! Toss them into your backpack or purse instead of leaving them on your desk to insure that you do not miss the opportunity to jot down important dates. Having your planner with you for the first week of school, also known as syllabus week, is vital in managing your time! Professors often give you a timetable of how they’ve scheduled their courses. Here you can usually find quiz/essay/test dates. Write them ALL down in one sitting. This way you can manage your time around these important dates. Also, don’t sweat it if you don’t write in your planner every day. I usually do it once a week, if not every two! And yes, it is because I live a rather uneventful life thus far.

If you’re like me and adorable stationary motivates you to use them, then behold – the ultimate list of cute 2015-2016 student planners to get you all revved up for this year of school!

Creating The “Face” Of Casual Detour

Does anyone remember Neopets? The heaven for early 2000s kids where you could get a neopet, feed it, put it in a hotel, paint it different colors, etc? Well I am feel no shame in saying that I was an adamant lover of Neopets back in the heyday and still occasionally log on to “zap” my neopets (shout out to readers who understand the reference).

Neopets was the beginning of my first foray into HTML/CSS and graphic designing. The makers of Neopets did a great job in making the site highly customizable in that we could create “pages” for our neopets, user lookups, and guild. In particular, I loved making themed guilds, a place where people with similar interests get together and socialize. Usually it was Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or Roleplaying themed guilds that I participated in. When building these guilds from ground up, making the graphics using my nifty Paint Shop Pro 7 program was undoubtedly my favorite part of of the process. So much so that I would spend my time making graphics for other guilds too in my spare time (which I had loads of as a middle school kid). Its fun creating an aesthetic and concept for something your care about and I find myself feeling the same sense of satisfaction as I did all those years ago when I worked on my cover photos and header photo for all things Casual Detour related. I am by no means an expert, but if I had not discovered my stronger passion for Nursing, I would definitely have pursued a career in graphic design. 

5 Ways To Commemorate Your Time Studying Abroad

Its almost here! Exactly 24 more days until I head out from Houston to Brighton! My summer has been anything but fun. I took 12 hours of classes this summer including anatomy and physiology I & II and developmental psych. Honestly, I never thought it would end. In between studying everyday, I somehow managed to sort out my housing situation, apply for my Tier 4 Student Visa, apply to University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston’s spring 2016 nursing program, and interview for UTMB. To say i’m pooped out is an understatement – or in literal anatomical terms, “my rectum is devoid of feces.”

I’ve only just started thinking about what I wanted to do to really commemorate, or remember my study abroad experience. It’s the biggest most adventurous thing i’ve decided to do with my life thus far, and dang nabbit I want to remember every little detail once it’s over! All the way down to what my best meal was in London and how much it costs. So without further ado, here are the FIVE things I plan to do to commemorate my time studying abroad.