By Caitlyn Meisner | Copy Editor

The spring semester is always the semester spawned from Satan, I swear. I always have more intense classes, on the hunt for summer internships and I just feel more busy in general.

Although I’ve taken 18 credit hours every semester I’ve been in college — don’t ask me how, I’m not sure how my brain hasn’t melted — the spring classes find a way to make 18 credit hours feel like 26.

Since this is my third and final spring semester — yay! — I decided to pull myself up by my bootstraps and get seriously organized to prepare for the next four months.

It’s also difficult this time of year to get motivated and organized coming off of the. high of winter break and looking ahead to summer. The weather lately has made it feel like summer to my Massachusetts mind.

I already consider myself to be a pretty organized person, but college has required a different breed of organization. I constantly have a to-do list open on my phone and computer, with my plans written out hour-by-hour to stay on track of everything I need to do.

Admittedly, it’s difficult to stay this organized. I try my hardest, but there are some days or weeks where I feel like a chicken running around campus with its head cut off. I find it easy to let the organization go by the wayside to make sure I get all my readings done before classes the next day, but I’ve decided to prioritize organization this semester.

It’s best to set realistic expectations for yourself each semester because if you don’t, it may feel like a semester wasted. I’ve felt like that sometimes, and it’s especially difficult when college goes by in the blink of an eye.

For example, I want to apply to one internship a week to prepare for the summer. That may not seem like a lot, but that’s a short-term goal and if I find more time in my schedule, then I can adjust and apply to two or three a week.

Last spring, I would go on binges and apply to 20 internships a day and could never keep track, or I would ditch my homework for the night and focus solely on this. Not responsible.

I think it’s important for all of us to set realistic expectations for ourselves this semester while it’s still early enough. Whether that’s trying to finish a show you’ve been wanting to finish for months, going to the gym more often or spending more time with friends, setting an expectation is the best thing you can do. This is because you likely won’t be disappointed with yourself when it’s June and you realize that you only went to the gym three times when in December you made it a resolution to go every single day.

Be realistic with yourself. Whatever your relationship with organization may be, I encourage all of us to set a goal like this for the semester so we can hopefully be more successful than previous semesters.