Establishing a study routine for my 2nd year at college/business school, working on an important campaign and my 3rd single, having some struggles with balance, and filming with YouTubers! Welcome to my first monthly career/college vlog!
Category: School
How I organize my study planner for college
Guess who’s sitting with a new study planner and getting ready for the second year of college? I’m excited!
The planner is from organized.no, which I worked for as a study ambassador for this planner (so naturally I got it for free). 🙂 The size is A5.
I just got my class schedule, so I’ve already plotted these in. I’m also taking a class from last semester to aim for a better grade this time, but I’m not sure when the lecture is held yet. Hopefully it won’t crash with another class. 🙂 The classes you can see underneath are microeconomics, law 1 (which takes most of the time) and tax law.
The pen is from a set from Target that includes 5 similar pens, but with different sizes of the tip.
The reason why I’ve plotted in the weekdays over again underneath is because I need to write down a reading schedule as well (self study). I didn’t have a good self-study routine last year, so that’s something new I’m trying out. A bit scared to write it down in case I’ve got a meeting or something, but I have promised myself to make school priority #1 this year, so I guess I should do it. Since my classes start pretty late (no classes before 11am!), I’ve plotted in some morning exercises as well. I’m also taking math over again (most likely without going to the lectures), so I’ve plotted that into self study for Wedensdays before tax law.
This is where I’ve planned the first month of August. I have a little “Focus”-section, where it currently has a campaign I’m working as a social media manager for, and school + helpmate-weeks, where I’m in a group to give a warm welcome the new students at my school. Also got “Monthly goals”, “Monthly To-Do’s”, “Hours spent…” and just little reminders to how to be productive.
These two pages includes deadlines and exams. I’ve written my exam-goals and study tips to achieve them.
Lastly, I’ve taken some use of the “Notes”-pages and plotted down tips & tricks from YouTube. These are study related, and on this page I’ve taken the summarized Thomas Frank-version of Marty Lobdell’s “Study less, study smart”-lecture.
Now I just need to buy the books and I’m ready for my second year of college!
Do you have a study planner? Any tips for study planning?
Is it important to attend college?
Ah, a big question for many (including my self). A lot of people have asked me “Why majoring in economy?” when the media world is my field and passion, which I’m going to explain in this post as well. I just want to write some thoughts and reflect around this whole “Do you need college?” thing.
My early life relationship to school
School has always been super important to my family. Both of my parents are doctors and went to medical school. I’m an only child, but if I had two siblings I’d guess at least 2/3 of us would become a lawyer, engineer, economist and maybe even a doctor as well. Luckily, my parents never wanted me to become a doctor, and actually have advised me from doing it. But if I had told them I wasn’t going to attend college after high school, I’d probably be sent to a boarding school in China. Just kidding (I hope… But at least something close it).
When I got my internship at 16 at Topp Magazine, the ones working there told me “You already got gold on your resume”. Here I was, 16 and a freshman in high school, with my own desk and computer at Norway’s biggest teen magazine. I got emails from students at journalism school who asked how I did it. I was in a position graduates from journalism school dreamed of. My YouTube channel also started to grow, and I was already in the business that I wanted to be a part of. I had my dream job, and I had gotten a lot of contacts within the business. After my internship, I worked at a PR firm for half a year at a “prestigious office” at Aker Brygge before I decided to focus more on my channel and school. My co-workers were students at marketing schools etc, and here I was. An 18 year old senior.
Still, I chose to attend business school after high school to learn more about economics and business law. I knew it didn’t really “need” to, because I already had a strong network and resume. But It’s not a secret that because we have this “system” there is a pressure to attend college, but I was actually excited about it. Even though I kind of needed to create some sort of excitement around it anyways, considering I knew it was not an option to not to go to college.
What do I think now?
I just finished the first year of my bachelor’s degree within economy and business law. I’m in my room and I’m thinking… What did I learn this school year? I mean, there are some interesting things I’ve catched up upon. But have I learned more here than in an everyday work life? Not to talk about I also got a super nice debt (that will be fun to look at when my bachelor is over).
I’ve watched a lot of Gary Vee’s videos lately, especially the ones where he talks about college:
Now, I would not discuss if education is important in general. We should all have the rights to learn how to write, read and basic math. If no one was educated, it wouldn’t really look right to the world. Knowledge is super important. But is it important to attend college? This is something I’ve been thinking about a lot. Now I’m not talking about becoming a lawyer or doctor, but for example business and marketing, like Gary talks about.
The first thing I have to say when the question is “Do you need college?” is… Well, you don’t really need anything in life (except water and food). Do you really need that degree and piece of paper? We’ve all heard plenty of times the sunshine stories of people with no college degree who makes millions of dollars and did just fine. I think, as for nearly everything else, it all comes down to the individual. What you want in life, how the circumstances are for you right now (and if they are not like you want them to be, create that environment now) etc. One thing I do know and like to say, is that your education alone is a very small percentage of it in a work setting. The education can be what you make it, and the degree will probably not hurt you when seeking a job. But if school doesn’t sound motivating at all, and you’re a hard worker who got a great idea? Go for the business idea! Maybe it will include you taking a part time job on the side, but you can still work smart and hard with your passion project.
It’s what you use it for that counts. I’d like to be better at drafting contracts etc., which I’ll learn more about the next years since I specialize within business law. A lot of people have asked me “Why economy?” when I work within media, but that’s exactly why: I don’t feel like the professors at a school can teach me more about how to make it in the social media world than what the internet can, and what I already have learned from work experience. I chose economy & business law because I wanted to become better at something that is not my main field. If I’m going to college, I might as well choose a major where I can learn something that can help me with my future businesses. I’ll admit, personally, the thought of having no college degree scares me. But I’m not sure if that’s because of the system of society or my parents (not that I have anything against going to a boarding school in China, but I’m perfectly fine here in Oslo).
If you want to work within marketing, already got a lot of work experience and strong connections, I’d say you’ll do just fine without an education. By all means, still go to college if that’s you dream, but I wouldn’t feel like I needed it. At least use school for more than just the classes. Network and make connections. Create relationships. Make the most out of it! But remember that people would want to work with you because you can show results within your field. Not the grades or the name of a degree on your paper.
What’s very, very important, is that no matter what you choose, you got to believe in yourself. I don’t care how cliché that sounds. If you keep doubting you and your ideas, it’s automatically going to be so much harder.
So, to make a conclusion: I think no matter what you choose – as long as you’re a hard worker, have belief and got a good head, I wouldn’t worry. Maybe I’ll write a post in 5 (or 10) years from now on with the same title, but with a bit different (and better) answer. Maybe even a “10 questions to see if you should attend college”. I still got two more years of college left as well, so we’ll see. What are your thoughts on this?
Exams & finals & stress
Hi guys!
About 2-3 weeks left until the first exam for this semester… Yikes! These are the classes I’m enrolled in this year:
– Organizational behavior and leadership
– Finance
– Mathematics for economists
– Statistics for economists
Organizational behavior and leadership is the first one out. This is the subject I enjoy the most, considering it’s a psychology-subject about how we behave at work. It’s more of a subject you read for rather than doing tasks (like math) to understand & to be good at the subject. The other ones are more math- and economy-related, and I have to say I enjoy more of the psychology- and law classes. I’ve always loved to read about interesting subjects, and especially write. Math and finance is OK I guess, but not what I enjoy the most.
So I was kind of stressed because I realized I had waaaay too many pages left for my O.B.A.L. class, so I decided to sit down and make a plan. On this plan it says how many chapters I need to be through with with a due date. And I’ve actually managed to stick to it!
It’s written in Norwegian though, but if you would like me to make a post with tips on how to study for finals, study routine, how to catch up etc – let me know in the comments!
Your future is important
I just finished another episode of 13 reasons why. When people talk about the show, they usually talk about the kids in school. How they were mean and didn’t care. One thing I noticed more relatable were the teachers and adults. It made think about my time in school before attending college.
Choosing what high school to go to was hard for me. In Norway, choosing a high school is like college. They look at your grades. The schools has different “majors” like college, where you can choose between for example music, media, athletics or just a “plain one” where you got a specific selection of subjects to choose from. As long as all the “majors” have a specific amount of “plain” subjects like english and math for example, you can still choose to go a normal college, even if you didn’t attend the “plain” major (hopefully that made sense).
I had pretty good grades. I guess I could have attended almost any school I wanted. My parents wanted me to go this prestigious private school that had a really good reputation. Their friends kids went there, and their parents had a lot of good things to say about it. I applied just to have my options available, and got accepted into the school early. That was also the year with the most applicants the school had received.
I, on the other hand, wanted to go to a different school just to take a media “major”. I don’t really have to explain why, do I? I loved film, photography, writing, graphic design… All of it. The school I wanted to go to also had a good reputation, but the media major was easier to get into. A lot of unmotivated students apply for these types of majors, because they are “tired of school” and just wants to have fun in high school. That’s why some people told me to avoid it, but I didn’t really wanna listen.
I remember telling one of the counsellors in middle school about my dilemma. I didn’t know what to choose. She just shrugged her shoulders and said something like “You can attend any normal college after high school if you choose a media major”, as if it didn’t really matter what I chose. And that’s the “advice” I got. She didn’t ask me any questions. She didn’t ask about grades, what was important to me or anything. Maybe it’s just me who is very passionate about these kind of things and could talk to someone about why they chose their major for hours. But isn’t it the school counsellor job to help guide the students to make good choices in life? It’s just… She didn’t seem very passionate about her job, I guess.
Then – let’s skip to my senior year. I already had a career within the media business and pretty good grades, and had a plan for my “after high school”-life. I was ambitious and very excited about my plans. I remember sitting next to one of my teachers on one of the last days of high school, and she asked me what my plans were. When I told her I was going to both college and keep working on my career, she looked at me unsurely and said something like “Isn’t that a bit too much?” with a really monotone tone in her voice. You should have seen her face expression. She just looked at me so… Weirdly. And the way she said it – way to motivate your students, to say at least! Luckily that only made me more motivated to prove that I could do it, though.
This is one of the reasons to why being passionate (or at least like) your job is important – especially when you have such an impact! As a teacher your goal should be to motivate your students and make sure they have possibility to reach their fullest potential. I really liked my teachers in elementary school. I feel like they really saw me, and wanted to help me get better. They challenged me. One day I want to go back to my old hometown and thank them for setting such a great basis for me and my life. You could see that they really cared about their students.
I don’t regret choosing the media major, but I do wish a teacher would have helped me looking at what options were good for me. I guess I didn’t see how important it was for me to go to class with someone smarter than me. How much more safer I would feel. How I should be pushed to my greatest extend. Because later I did realize that I went to a school with class mates who didn’t really care that much about their grades (or media, for that matter), and I lost a lot of motivation to that. Luckily I met 3 amazing friends who had a good work ethic, but I don’t know what I would do if they had not end up in my class.
This is one of many reasons why Career Material is important to me. I want you to know and feel how important your future is. I want to inspire you every single day, and remind you how important your goals and potential are. How anything is possible if you just do something about it. I hope my blog posts, videos and myself just in general will make you get some good vibes about your future, and see your own potential. If I only can help one of you to do that, I’ve completed an important mission. It’s true though, what they say about life: You are your only limit. And you can’t rely on other people in your life. Please do know, that your future is important.
Me (to the left) the first year of high school with my new high school bestie named Bea at an event with Bikbok. Good times, tho ❤️
Career material 