Bad College Habits Busted

Earlier this week, I stumbled upon a sea of young men and women flooding the sidewalks of upper Manhattan sporting light blue graduation gowns. It was Class Day at Columbia University.

It’s been seven years since I donned a grad gown of my own- at the time, one of many filling up the old Yankee Stadium with NYU purple.

I’m not one of those people who subscribes to the view of college as “the best four years of my life”. My time on campus was undoubtedly transformative, but I’ve found that the “real world”, complete with its’ challenges and responsibilities, offers far greater rewards.

So as I wove my way through the groups of grads and guests crowding the city sidewalks, I wasn’t overcome with undergraduate nostalgia, but rather, reflection upon how far I’ve come since.

From abandoning amaretto sours as my drink of choice to expanding my cooking repertoire beyond Kraft mac n’ cheese, the habits of my younger years weren’t exactly conducive to the life I was seeking to build. And while I won’t pretend I’m entirely free of any less than desirable behaviors today, there are more than a few from my past I’m grateful to have left in the dust.

Bad College Habits Busted… 

Mindless Ritual

My mornings at NYU generally kicked off with a hot chocolate and croissant between AM classes. I’d mix in the occasional bagel with cream cheese, followed by an afternoon pick me up of hot chocolate round two while catching up on facebook homework. Then there were the late night binges of Coca-Cola and Cheetos that became synonymous with cramming for tests and cranking out last minute assignments.

In looking back on that laundry list of foods and drinks I’ve since outlawed from my diet, I’m not only reminded how sweet it is to be down twenty five pounds, but how simple it is to slip into mindless ritual.

I’m all for implementing constructive patterns of behavior, but the cycle of habitual consumption I’d created (both dietary and monetary) wasn’t exactly serving me- not beyond the pleasure of fleeting indulgence at least. And let’s be honest, indulgence is no longer indulgence when it becomes routine.

Purposeless Purchasing

Believe it or not there was a time when I spent money on things I didn’t really need. I was never in danger of becoming a total spendthrift, but I would enjoy the occasional Sunday morning off before the chaos of weekly classes, aimlessly wandering around campus, i.e. New York City, acquiring items that caught my eye. By the end of my four years I had amassed more candles, picture frames and piles of unnecessary clutter than I knew what to do with.

Luckily, I had a forceful introduction to minimalism upon graduation when my first job required that I pack a years’ worth of my life into one forty-four pound suitcase. From then on, I learned to value every precious dollar spent, as well as the time, space and energy cost of acquiring and maintaining every item.

Challenging Nothing

I used to pay ATM fees. (Cue gasp).

It wasn’t because I enjoyed burning through three dollars every time I needed cash; I just thought that was the cost of getting access to my money. I didn’t look for alternatives, I didn’t question the system- in my mind, things were what they were and cost what they cost- period.

Shifting away from an always agreeable, non-confrontational mindset post-grad was possibly the most quantifiably valuable change I made in my young adult life. Applying all the critical thinking skills I had spent four expensive years in undergrad honing to the practical realities of life opened my eyes to how much further you can go when you challenge everything.

My friend J Money over at Budgets are Sexy devotes an entire savings account to cash he’s accumulated through his various challenges- renegotiating insurance rates, finding a better value cell phone provider, etc. As of April, the 8^th month of his “challenge everything” challenge, J Money had amassed $3,843.70 in that account. Yeah, I’d say that my former practice of challenging nothing was a habit worth busting.

Have you busted any bad college habits lately?

This article by Stefanie OConnell first appeared on The Broke and Beautiful Life and was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.