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It's not the cheapest, but I swear by CeraVe lotion. I've always got dry, super sensitive skin, & it gets infinitely worse during the winter here, no matter how much tea & water I drink. My dermatologist recommended CeraVe to me after a few weeks of miserable winter skin. Also, organic, milk-based soaps with oatmeal or coffee & minimal perfumes are excellent for exfoliating dry skin without making it worse.

Invest in microspikes, & familiarize yourself with the layout of the new locale & public transportation in the area as best you can. REI gear sales are amazing for finding top quality, sturdy winter clothes at a reasonable price. Ditto the websites The Clymb, Evo, & SteepAndCheap! Depending on where you're going & what your housing situation will be like, you could also look into whether there are options for subsidized home-winterizing. I invested in a 10,000 lux "happy lamp" (Seasonal Affective Disorder/SAD "sun" lamp), since I live in a cold & overcast place, & it was totally worth it!

Traveled, in the US: 29 of the 50 states, but I won't bore you with a list. I need to make it out to AK, HI, & the middle states. Lived, in the US: Boston, NYC, San Francisco, Missoula; central VA, rural Far NorCal, the East Sierra in CA, suburban NJ. Traveled, outside the US: Canada, Mexico, St. Kitts, Nevis, Bermuda, Puerto Rico (I guess it's technically the US), Trinidad, Tobago, Grenada, Belize, Guatemala, St. John's, St. Thomas, Virgin Gorda, Spain, France, Italy, Poland, England, Wales. Lived, outside of the US: Australia. I'm really lucky to have grown up as an only child with two working parents who love traveling. I still have the travel bug, although I'm perpetually broke & busy these days, which severely limits my traveling opportunities. I'd like to take a long backpacking trip around a parts of northern Europe whenever I have a more stable living situation & income, though, & head back to Australia to visit friends & see Indonesia, New Zealand, & perhaps Thailand, too. I want to see it all! If only I had infinite money..

Depends on your style, but well made rain boots or waterproof boots (e.g., Tretorn & Sorel boots of varying heights & interior fluffiness) are a good investment. I'm not sure what the worst rainfall to expect in Seattle would be, but having a nice pair of fluffy, short Sorels here in MT has proven to be an awesome decision. Also, again, depends on your style & the details of the weather, but having a couple of different coats can be useful: one for rain & heavy snow, one for less intense weather. I have an insulated, waterproof snow jacket, & a medium weight wool peacoat. Other investments that were easier for me to order online: coffee maker & filters, metal bed frame that can collapse/be taken apart after being put together, light bulbs, bulk dry foods, pillows, Dirt Devil or other small vacuum. I don't have a car, though, so those were the things that would've been a nuisance to try to haul on a bike!

Going out to eat can be expensive in that neck of the woods, but when I lived in San Francisco, I was pleasantly surprised by how affordable groceries were, especially produce! Farmers markets are especially awesome if you eat a lot of produce. I don't know if they've got one in SC, but the Safeway I went to in SF was big enough that using my membership card (free) & shopping for sale foods was always good. I miss my enormous, perfectly ripe $1 avocados.. all I have now are small, overripe avocados at $3.50 a pop.

It depends on your relationship with them, I think. I'm sort of the family oddball on both sides, so my confused relatives have been giving me money in lieu of gifts for years. When I was younger, I saved most of it, so that was what actually allowed me to afford two field schools down the road. When I graduated from college, I didn't send out announcement cards or anything, but my parents (who are separated) were so proud of me they bragged to every relative they could, & as word traveled down the "enormous Irish Catholic family" grapevine, congratulatory cards & checks started arriving. In other words, they asked on my behalf without actually asking, if that makes sense. That said, when I finish my M.A., I'll probably send out announcement cards. Neither side of my family has many advanced degree holders, & I live so far away now that I likely won't see most of them for months after I graduate, so it's I think a good way to stay in touch & let them all know what I'm up to. If they want to send me money, cool!; if not, cool! More than anything, it's a nice way to keep my families in the loop that I'm mostly out of.

Ooh, I like Founders' Centennial! I'm not sure I've had anything from the rest. Montana has a ridiculous amount of breweries; it's on par with Oregon in the Portland & Bend areas. Big Sky is the most famous, but for the most part, there are lots of smaller craft brewers who operate on a local, regional, or state level. In Missoula proper, we've got at least 5 breweries, not including the Big Sky one, which is further out of town anyhow. We have lots of brewfests throughout the year, & even the one in the middle of winter still gets 20+ in-state brewers. It's awesome!

In Léon: The Professional, I love the end scene where Mathilda (itty bitty Natalie Portman) is planting Léon's beloved houseplant in the school grounds, & addresses it by his name.

As a Montana resident: I kid, I kid (well, kind of). Out of curiosities, what breweries are in MI? I'm really only aware of what's around me in MT, plus breweries near places I've lived (mostly northern & central CA).

At my alma mater, graduates in the Archaeology, Classics, Ancient Greek, & Latin programs — at most, 20 students combined — received a laurel crown in lieu of a traditional cap. Turns out laurels are really sticky & having plant matter on your head will really make you stick out in a crowd. The university also allows students to customize their caps, so people got really creative! Some examples from my friends: one got a burnt out light bulb & made it stick straight up in the center of his cap, another adhered a portable solar panel/charger & charged his phone during all-student ceremonies (held outside), another created a scene with plastic toy trees & dinosaurs… in general, it's really nice that they encourage such creativity & inclusion of meaningful self-expression. I've heard of other schools berating students for things like that, e.g., Native students adding an eagle feather to their cap or wearing beaded medallions in addition to stoles. Meanwhile, I plodded around with a bunch of sticky leaves & a sparkly skull & crossbones.

Ooh, I like the Excel idea! I usually use color-coded sticky notes alongside a handwritten list (also color-coded), but in my effort to get used to doing everything on my laptop, I think I'll try that for my next lit review. Although it may seem obvious, if you have a writing center at your disposal, use it! I haven't been able to schedule a full appointment yet, but after a 2-hour lit review workshop with someone from our writing center, complete with 5 or so helpful handouts, I feel way better about my writing. They have staff in every broad field (e.g., social sciences), & they can help with anything from posters to thesis finagling. If nothing else, it's worth stopping by to say hello & see what your writing center offers.

I'm 23, & I'm not sure whether I want to have kids. I've given some thought to the possibility of being a foster parent (with a partner/spouse) in lieu of adopting or having kids. There's also a possibility that a serious illness I had 4 years ago & its treatments have left me unable to have children, &, even if I can, I'd almost certainly have to get a C-section, which I am not super down with. My "10 year hopes/plan" is very much centered around me, where I'd like to live, the possibility of pursuing a PhD, etc.; I don't even see parenthood as being remotely feasible until I'm in my early or mid-30s. For those who have definitely decided they never want children: was there something in particular that helped you reach this conclusion? What was your thought process? ("I just don't want kids" is a totally valid answer here, of course)

Also worth noting: I remember seeing a Cost of Living index of sorts once, & my small city is somewhere around the national average, perhaps a bit lower, in terms of expected food costs. I'm a pescatarian, too, & I have very little dairy in my diet, so I think I save a lot of money by not having beef, poultry, pork, or cheeses (well, besides a wedge of brie per month, because it's a guilty pleasure) in my regular grocery runs.