101 things to do with Soak | 029 University Essentials

Author: Ngoc

Orientation week. Frosh week. Welcome week. 

My little cousin Diana and her friends having a good time during Ryerson's Frosh week.

Summer has finally come to an end but for these students entering college/university for the first time, this week has been highly anticipated. If your son or daughter is heading off to post-secondary school this week, don’t forget to send them off with a bottle of Soak or a handful of mini-soaks.

In honour of all the students going back to school, I’d like to dedicate this week’s post to the lessons I learned during my time at university and how Soak can help.

The freshman 15 is very real. After being the same weight for 5 years, it only took 2 weeks with a prepaid meal plan for me to put an extra 10% on my body weight. Being able to have a full meal at 1 am is both glorious and awful. Whether you are enjoy yoga, swimming, intramural sports or lifting weights; exercising will help you stay healthy, combat the freshman 15, keep your mind alert, and is a great way to meet other students. Use Soak to keep your workout wear clean after every use. You can use it on your swimwear, yoga wear, jerseys, and even your gym shoes. Just soak for 15 mins and lay flat or hang to dry.

Your backpack will be used to carry more than just books. At least once during the school year, your bag will be soiled by either a drink explosion, a squished banana or a thousand chip crumbs. Not to worry, a good soaking in the sink with some Soak will clean that bag right up. Just flip your backpack inside out and shake over a garbage can. Make sure you empty all the pockets. Fill up the sink, add Soak and leave your bag in there for 15 mins. Squeeze out as much of the water as you can and hang to dry.

There is always a shortage of quarters. I would let my dirty laundry pile up until I didn’t have a single clean garment left. I’m embarrassed by the amount of times I’ve picked up a shirt from my dirty laundry basket, gave it a sniff and deemed it appropriate to wear. A mini-soak would have been just what I needed during moments. If you know that you will need an outfit for the evening but don’t have time to put in a load of laundry, don’t fret, just use Soak. Throw the outfit you want to wear in the sink with some Soak, leave for 15 mins, squeeze out the excess water and roll in a towel to absorb as much of the water as possible, and hang to dry. In the summer, hanging by an open window will help to speed up the drying process.

• Even though you had 8am classes every day in high school, waking up for an 8am class in university is significantly harder.
• 1 hour break between classes means you can take a good 45 min nap.
• 500 dollars a course divided by 12 weeks of school means you are paying approximately 42 dollars a week per course. Go to them.
• Text books are really expensive. Check to see if your school has a used book store, or use online classifieds to buy from other students. Often the older edition will suffice. Ask the prof.
• University isn’t easy. It isn’t as hard as you first think it is either. You will survive.
• Any food that is free is delicious.
• You will look forward to visiting your parents, or having your parents visit you. There is always something home cooked involved.
• Living in residence is fun, exciting, unpredictable, memorable, and also something that I couldn’t handle doing again. Good luck and enjoy.  

Do you have any other fun tips from your University days? I’d love to hear them.