Emma Dolson/Old Gold & Black
If you are seeing this post, it’s (almost certainly) because you scrolled past it on Facebook, which also means that (unless you are my mom or someone else in that generation) you are being absolutely bombarded by a back-to-school overload. How many times have you seen a caption resembling some version of, “Back at it” / “Good to be back” / “Washed up seniors”? Make sure you yell it to the world: “WE ARE BACK!! COLLEGE IS AWESOME!!”
Good job, everyone – you’ve made me sufficiently nostalgic, jealous, and depressed. Graduating didn’t fully hit me back in May – coming home just felt like any other summer. But now everyone is going back, and I’m realizing that I can’t go with them. I moved my sister into a new apartment for her sophomore year at JMU yesterday, and I didn’t want to leave (I will say though that I unknowingly showed my age by drinking wine while all of her friends were taking shots).
What I’m realizing is – albeit with the unfortunate timing that is after – that college IS awesome. I mean, seriously. Your body somehow survives on no sleep, lots of alcohol, lots of awful (for you) but amazing (tasting) food, and an ungodly amount of busy work and paper-writing. I can’t do that now – hence the glass or two of wine and the 10:30pmbedtime. You meet people from all over the world (if you put in the effort), learn from professors about whom you wonder how they know everything they do, and cultivate SO much naïve and lighthearted freedom.
You’ve read, I am sure, more than one list of “Things to do before you graduate college,” so I hope I can reinforce a few ideas and maybe bring some new ones to the table.
Without further ado, Things To Do Before You Graduate College:
Go to class. GO. TO. CLASS. First of all, if you (or God forbid, your parents) do the math, you might feel a little sick when you realize how much money each class costs – and I don’t mean the course…I mean literally that one Fridaymorning for 50 minutes. It’s sometimes $100s of dollars. If that’s not incentive enough, maybe look at it this way – never again in your life (unless, of course, you go to grad school) will you have the opportunity to learn some really random stuff from some really smart people. At work, you’ll learn the SKILLS necessary for your job, but you won’t learn about the history of democracy in Latin America or why George Orwell wrote what he did (can you tell I studied liberal arts?). Yes, there is Wikipedia, but that’s different. Go to class because when you start working, you’ll miss learning new knowledge for the sake of learning new knowledge.
Study abroad (in a different country) and join an intramural sports team (on campus). I did neither of these things, and both are my biggest college regrets.
Study!!!
Be nice to people. We’ve been taught this since before kindergarten, but it’s still just as, if not more, important. You’re an adult now…why go out of your way to be mean to someone? You don’t have to become best friends with everyone – just don’t be mean. This is something I struggled with, and now I wonder, what the hell was the point of talking behind people’s backs? There wasn’t one. Be, at the very least, cordial with everyone – you have NO idea who might be your boss –or only familiar face in a new city – down the road.
Join a Greek organization or don’t join one – no one cares. Just join something! It’ll give you chances to meet older and younger students, opportunities to lead something, and time to take your mind of school work. There’s so much freedom in college and if you don’t join any groups on or off campus, you might get to the end of four years and wonder what you did with them.
Don’t do things you don’t want to do – besides taking divisionals. College is the time to be selfish – do whatever you want, with whomever you want, whenever you want to do it. If you don’t want to do what “everyone else” is doing, then Jesus Christ – don’t do it! It’s not worth your time and energy – seriously.
Become friends with your professors. Especially if you go to a small school – learn to play the game. I worked hard in college, but I also knew that if I became close with my professors, they would treat me well. Call it what you want – teacher’s pet, suck up – doesn’t matter to me. I got the grades I wanted, the recommendations I needed, and the mentors I hoped for.
Four years is so unbelievably short. Enjoy every single second. Sleep in late some days to recharge; wake up early on others to take advantage of empty campuses and dining hall breakfasts. Study around the clock on some weekends, don’t even open your backpack on others. Take random classes – my two required writing courses were “Violent Women in British and American Literature” and “The Geopolitics of James Bond.” Ask questions.
If I had the chance to go back, I would.
Still, just a few hours ago, I went into my 15 year old brother’s room to hang out and, after he so kindly kicked me out because he was studying, I thought to myself that perhaps this post-grad thing won’t be too bad after all.