As of yesterday around 10:30 a.m., I am officially done with my second-to-last semester of college! Only one more semester standing between me and graduation!

As a college senior, I have had my fair share of dealing with finals. Late night study sessions, last minute cramming sessions - I've done seen it all. When November (also known as GPA Awareness Month) comes around, we find ourselves trying to make up late assignments, visit office hours and scrounge for extra credit opportunities, all of which make studying for finals much more difficult. So, in the hopes of lowering the stress level among college students across the nation, I've created a list of tips to help you survive finals!

CREATE A STUDY AREA
Sitting on your bed with a couple of papers scattered around and a book open while "listening" to reruns of Keeping Up with the Kardashians in the background is not considered studying. Create an area in your house conducive to learning! Whether it be your kitchen table or your desk in your room, designate that area solely to studying and try to study solely in that place over the course of the semester. That way, when you sit down at that designated area, your mind already knows that it's time to get work done.

ORGANIZE YOUR LIFE
I don't know about you, but I canNOT study in a messy room. My mind follows suit of my room and becomes cluttered and unorganized, making it impossible to focus on anything, including my studies. hen finals come around, I make sure to clear off my desk except for the essentials: laptop, books, pens & pencils, notes, and coffee. Yes, I consider coffee to be essential.

KEEP AN AGENDA
Last year, I invested in a Lilly Pulitzer planner and I absolutely love it. Along with writing all of my assignments, organizational meetings, and upcoming exams, using an agenda especially helps during finals time. Keeping track of organization obligations and academic assignments is much easier when you can see it right in front of you. 

STUDY GROUPS
The worst part of finals is relearning all of the information that you learned over the semester. Make it a little easier by organizing a study group with a couple of people in your class! Sure you'll spend half of the time venting about your annoying professor whose tests are unbearably hard, but the other half will be super productive!

REVIEW PAST ASSIGNMENTS
We all wait until the last week or so of classes to start working on the study guide our professors gave us a month ago. Instead of repeating that ugly cycle, review your assignments/exams every week. For example, if you take a history test at the beginning of October and your professor gives it back to you graded a week later, get to class a couple of minutes early once a week for the rest of the semester and read over your exam, noting the corrections. That way, by the time December comes around, you're still familiar with the material which equals less study time and more sleep time!

TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF
Now, I'm not talking about getting your hair and nails done every week. Take the time to get some sleep and eat healthily. Ramen noodles and pizza rolls are not real food! While they might be good on your pocket, these foods definitely take a toll on your body. Staying up until 3 a.m. studying for your 9 a.m. final the next morning isn't doing you any good either. Instead, drink lots of water (in between coffee breaks) and try and eat real meals. Ya know, the ones that have vegetables and meat!

What tips do you have for surviving finals? I'd love to hear from you!

"What do you want for Christmas?"
"Ummm...I'm not sure."
This happens to me literally every year. Of course I create lists throughout the year but by the time December rolls around, I never have a good answer. This year, I searched for some cute (yet inexpensive) finds!

 In my opinion, happiness is not joy. Being happy is great and all but I'd rather be joyful. Now, I know you're probably thinking "this girl is crazy. They're the same thing." Well, not to me they're not. Happiness is an expression that's only seen on the surface. Someone could be going through hell or high-water on the inside but on the outside, they look happy. Joyfulness...now that's a whole different story. Joyfulness comes from deep deep down in the depths of your soul. When you've got the ability to turn "one step forward, two steps back" into a cha-cha, then you're on your way. I know it's hard to think about being joyful when all of this craziness is going on in the world (war, government shutdown, the end of Breaking Bad) but don't fret! I've included a recipe for joy to keep a little pep in your step today :)

- Heapings of love
- A handful of supportive people
- A teaspoon of courage
- An utterly enormous amount of faith
- Tons of smiles
- A hint of forgiveness

**Now, before I go any further, let's discuss faith. If you don't believe in a higher being, then I don't mean to offend you. It's just something I believe rather strongly in so I've included it in my recipe. You're faith doesn't have to be in a higher being at all! If you have faith that the sun will rise and set each morning, then hold onto that with every fiber of your being. Just faith in something is necessary for this recipe to work.**

1. As soon as you wake up in the morning, close your eyes, focus on whatever your faith is directed towards, and let it fill you up. If it's faith in God, pray. If it's faith in yourself, have a quick internal pep talk. But grab a strong hold of that faith before you can move on to the other steps.

2. Smile. (I don't care who or what you smile at, but just smile.)

3. Okay now this part can get tricky - continue smiling as you think about someone whose hurt your extremely bad. KEEP SMILING. This is where we're gonna throw in the forgiveness.

4. Try really really hard to forgive that person for one of the mean things they've done to you. Not all or half. Just one.

(Are you still smiling? You should be!)
 5. Alright this is probably the hardest part so get yourself prepared - LOVE. Hell, I don't care if your love of shoes outweighs the love of your job. Just love something. Now, remember how I told you to get a handful of supportive people? They are who I want you to focus your love on..

6. This is the last step! Yay! When you leave for work or class or wherever you're going, keep smiling and keep loving.

That's it. That's all you need to do to be joyful! But this isn't a one-time thing. You have to follow this recipe everyday for there to actually be a change.

Okay so let's get something straight from the get-go: I attempt to cook. I don't ever just wake up and say "oh I'd like to make a five course meal, today!" No...that never happens. What I do end up saying to myself is "hey, instead of dying of starvation today, let's find some sustenance." More often than not, I heat up some Ramen noodles and a cup of water. (Yeah, it's pretty gourmet cuisine.) If you're an undergraduate student, you know what I mean. For those of you who don't understand, let me explain: we are poor. It may seem like we have money because we go to this gorgeous school and somehow manage to have pretty cool laptops, but it's ALL a lie. We don't cook because we don't have groceries. We don't have groceries because we don't have money. We don't have money because we pay thousands of dollars for tuition, take out numerous loans, and spend it on frivolous things like textbooks and lab manuals.

As a college student on a pretty tight budget, I absolutely love when I come across deals (especially when they're specials on clothes!). Clothes are my weakness. It's absolutely shameful how much time I spend online shopping. That's why, when I heard about Lollipuff, this online auction site for designer goods, I had to do a little more research.

Thankfully, the awesome editors at HerCampus got me in contact with the founder of Lollipuff for an interview!

At no point in time is there EVER counterfeit merchandise because every item that someone wants to sell on Lollipuff is passed through a strict authentication process. Once it's been cleared by the authentication experts, the buyer is able to post the item on the website and bidding begins! You never have to worry about anyone else handling your merchandise because at Lollipuff, there's no middleman.

However, for right now, the only brands that can be sold/bought are Chanel, Christian Louboutin, Balenciaga, and Herve Leger. It is 100% free to join and, with that membership, you've got a 100% authenticity guarantee! (How great is that??)


Check out my article for an in-depth interview with the founder, as well as some more information about the newly created site!