Sometimes I think colleges give kids money just to guilt them into being good students.

I'm the kind of person who does best in new situations when I know what I want to get out of them. Most often, this involves a set of goals. Now, I'm not saying I'm perfect and whenever I make a list of goals, I almost never accomplish all of them. My to-do lists are full of uncrossed out lines and I can't tell you how often I've abandoned some of them all together.

I still make the lists though, and these are my five goals for the start of my college career.

1. Practice good study habits. This includes actually studying, something I didn't do much of in high school. It also means reading all the assigned chapters, another task I neglected. How I got into the school I did is beyond me. (Not really true. I know how I got in.)

2. Not procrastinate for at least three weeks. I am, by nature, a procrastinator. (I think most teenagers are, even the most goal-oriented ones.) For example, I waited until the last possible hour to write my paper for my freshman seminar just a couple days ago. I've waited until this week to start my dorm-buying and room-packing process. I figure that if I can maintain at least three weeks of proactiveness, I should be able to keep it up for the rest of the semester. Maybe. Hopefully.

3. Maintain a regular sleep schedule. I did a post a couple days ago on this, but in case you didn't read that, I have a really fucked up sleeping schedule. I honestly think I was meant to be noctural but a 9:30am class does not fit with this destiny. I must alter my sleeping habits. I'm thinking I'll sleep from midnight to 8am. Or maybe 1am to 8am, we'll see.

4. Use Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons to do homework. These are the blocks I don't have classes, so I have to utilize them to get my work done. Time management is key.

5. Go to the campus gym at least twice a week. I'm a lazy ass person. My idea of exercise is walking from my car to house and room to bathroom at least three times a day. I'm awful. I hope to find at least one kindred spirit who'll drag me along to get my lazy ass in shape.

My goal is to accomplish at least two of these goals. I'm lowballing it, I know, but I've got to at least try to pretend that I'm a good student to justify the scholarship money they're giving me, right?