So, if you’re offered a job in another state or one that demands excessive overtime, take a moment to step back. Make a list of your negotiables and non-negotiables, and consider whether the job is truly right for you. I’ve made the mistake of pushing myself out of my comfort zone relentlessly for the sake of a job. While growth often comes from challenges, it’s important to recognize when the sacrifices just aren’t worth it. Your life should reflect all the things that matter to you, not just your career.

One of the privileges of studying at a school like USC is the amount of academic opportunities there are. From unique classes, to clubs, to study abroad, and much, much more, the university puts a real emphasis on interdisciplinary learning. Around this time last year, something clicked in my brain: I really wanted to take advantage of everything that USC had to offer. So, I started considering a double major.

Like my peers, the thought of living with roommates was a bit unpleasant. But as a transgender student, the added possibility of living with people who were uninformed about my identity was nightmarish. At best, these people could be unsure yet accepting. At worst, I could face hatred, or even violence. These thoughts stayed in the back of my mind as I began to look into housing. Then the Rainbow Floor appeared.  

As someone who can be a bit of a weenie when it comes to watching horror, yet still loves the stories, it can be hard finding the perfect horror movie/show to watch that balances good storytelling yet is scary. Lots of people have seen/heard of the classics like Scream, and The Exorcist, but there’s numerous modern horror projects that are equally as scary/fun that you might’ve not heard of. 

When selecting a place to sit, I consider two crucial factors: people and proximity. Ask what your college can do for you. There I said it. Students and professors who take a fleeting glance at me crouched on the floor motivate me to look productive and therefore be productive. Sitting next to the lecture hall makes the looming nearness of the next class a ticking time bomb to finish my readings at hand.

Living on campus is a dream, mostly in the sense that you romanticize it in your own head. Before moving to college, living in a dorm seems really cool (not for me because I was terrified of communal bathrooms but still); you get to basically live in a building with all the people you know and campus is a step or two away. However, living there becomes painful eventually, as you realize that when you’re exhausted or looking your worst and just want to go out to get some food or head to the library, there’s a 95% chance that you’ll run into someone you know. Randomly seeing people is only fun in theory.

You often hear that there’s millions of scholarships available for college students. But most of these scholarships can have extremely niche criteria that you don’t feel like applies to you, or feel like a shot in the dark. As someone who’s successfully landed thousands in scholarships, in my experience, the more narrow the criteria to apply to a scholarship, the more likely you are to get that scholarship. And surprise, surprise, there can be one piece of criteria that already benefits a large percentage of USC students. 

Sometimes it feels like the friendliness at this school flows as much as the LA river. Maybe it was strong and powerful in the past. But over time, it’s slowed to a trickle. Then the walls went up, and now at times, the friendliness is barely there. In some areas, it’s more of a creek than a river, to be honest. 

Even though Starbucks is constantly throwing out new drinks, it’s still easy to get tired of just Starbucks. As a self-proclaimed coffee lover and fun drink connoisseur, seeing how many coffee shops there were on campus was exciting, but also a little confusing. I wasn’t sure which one would become my favorite, because how could anything replace my favorite hometown coffee shops?

I am a senior in the Business of Cinematic Arts program at USC, so when I am on campus, I spend a majority of my time either in a breakout room in Fertitta or on a balcony in the School of Cinematic Arts. But I recently discovered a hidden gem on campus, a space in the Student Union that I think every student should enter at least once during their time at USC... The Sustainability Hub! I documented my first time entering the Sustainability Hub in a previous blog article, but I came back again for its Open House this semester. Here is how it went: