Featured imaged by Paige Gaskins

Welcome to Talking with Taylor, a blog series that really is just me talking. If you have stumbled across this or find my blog to be interesting, trust me, you’re in for a wild time. I know I’m not a lifestyle guru, nowhere near it. Instead, I want to help anyone survive college and live life to the fullest. 

With this semester starting, I am being introduced to morning classes. The past year and a half my schedule always allowed for classes after 10 a.m. Now, my first class Monday morning is at 8 a.m., and it’s a little bit of a struggle. I have always been somewhat of a morning person, but I haven’t had class that early since my junior year of high school. Therefore, I knew that I was going to need some assistance or additions to my routine. 

I try to start my morning by waking up an hour before my class. This gives me enough time to wake up a little bit and get started with my day. I take this time to stand up, stretch and walk around a little. I know I’m going to be sitting in front of a computer screen for a while, so I want to do these all now before I can’t anymore. 

15 to 20 minutes before my class starts, I make breakfast. Most of the time I’m still tired, so I simply just get myself a cup of iced coffee. Even when it’s 30 degrees out, iced is always better. Recently, I have been buying the premade iced coffee from International Delight and adding tons of ice to keep it cold. It’s a good pick-me-up and a lot less expensive than getting Starbucks or Dunkin’ every day. Sometimes I’ll wake up a little earlier and treat myself to a cup from a coffee shop, but the extra 20 minutes of sleep I could get are so tempting. 

After getting a cup of coffee, I make sure to set up my desk, so I can pay attention and take notes. I know that if I do class in my bed, I’ll be super tempted to go right back to sleep and not actually pay attention. Plus, I own a desk that I only use for doing my makeup, so I might as well use it a little more, right? 

While I get everything logged on and set up, I make sure that I have the right notebooks and some of my favorite colorful pens and highlighters. This makes class more fun and less of a chore, especially because I love taking fun notes. It helps me stay more organized with all the classes I’m taking this semester. 

Some days I might do my classes from the kitchen or the living room just to get some new scenery. This allows me to really wake up sometimes, since most of the time my room is still a little dark, because my roommate is sleeping. Sometimes if I know it’s just a lecture, I’ll make some toast while I’m listening if I do class from the kitchen. 

These aren’t big changes, but they really help me adjust to having  classes in the morning. I must say though, having morning classes does get me motivated to get my days started and be super productive! I might even consider taking a 9 a.m. class sometime in the future.