![You Before College [Oh, It’s Tuesday]](https://fierceandnerdy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/etccollege.png)
You Before College [Oh, It’s Tuesday]
Yesterday right before leaving the office (Starbucks — and no, just in case you’re wondering, that joke will never get old for me), I noticed a group of young people who looked both knowledgeable and scared. I immediately pegged them as entering freshman from a nearby college, and then remembered by own days as a scared-but-ridiculously-confident first year at Smith College’s BRIDGE program for entering students of color.
I wondered what I would have said to myself back then knowing what I do now. I’m still a bit bummed about taking part in the long skirt craze of the late 90s and rarely wearing mini-skirts in college, b/c I certainly don’t have the legs to do so now. I also would have liked to have given myself a thorough money education, so that I wouldn’t have to learn the hard way in my 20s.
One of the few first year photos I can find of myself -- since this was before digital cameras. You'll notice that I am wearing a long skirt. Aw, the 90s...
I often wonder why I didn’t experiment even more with my hair while no one was really looking and before the age of digital cameras. I wish I had taken science classes at Smith as I’m very interested in science now. In fact, having found my unexpected East Asian Languages & Literature minor so interesting, I often wish I had majored in something other than English, just to have an even more random knowledge base. Also, I ended up having to re-read many of the classics we covered at Smith in grad school — and you know how I feel about re-reading.
I might tell my younger self to appreciate learning more than I did — that it’s a privilege, not a due reward for being smart. And there are many Smithies that I like a lot now that I wish I had taken the time to get to know better when we were actually in college together.
But that’s me. What advice would you have given yourself before entering college if you knew now what you knew then?
Funnily enough, I looked up the schedule for the nearby college online before writing this and discovered that Freshman orientation had not even begun yet. Those bright-eyed-but-scared students were most likely soon-to-be high school seniors from one of their summer college programs. So they have a little more time left…
1. No CREDIT CARDS!!! Yes, I mean none! Or you’ll spend years fixing your credit.
2. Take a couple of math classes. You’ll need them down the road – grad school is gonna kick your ass – even though you think you won’t.
3. Don’t spend so much time in your room studying first semester…have some fun too!
4. Travel abroad as much as possible….I know you don’t have the money but make it work!
5. Cherish it! I mean every part…the good, the bad and the ugly because you will so miss it one day.
So agree with your #1
So disagree with your #2. Considering how my life turned out, I’m pissed that I even bothered with Calculus in high school. Though statistics might have been fun…
I remember feeling like I barely saw you first semester
Yeah, if Betty tries not to travel abroad, I’m pretty much going to bully her into doing so.
It’s funny, I do feel like I cherished it while I was there. Maybe too much. I still have dreams in which I’m back at Smith, then I’m a bit sad when I wake up…I love my life, but it would be so nice to experience that again for a day or two. Yeah, Zora and Betty are pretty much going to be browbeaten into going, so that we can live vicariously.
That was such an exciting time! But unfortunately it was the grunge era. I wore flannel all the time, even when it was warm.
My advice would be the flip side of Monique’s #3: figure out how much each assignment, test, paper, etc. is worth and devote time accordingly. I spent time equally my first semester, and ended up spending far too long on little assignments like weekly math problem sets and not nearly enough time on the ones that mattered.
I wore SO much flannel, too. What was I thinking??? The 90s so didn’t appreciate good tailoring, when I look back at pictures, it’s like everybody’s wearing something two sizes too big. I spent very little time on everything, but Chinese, which should have tipped me off that I wasn’t taking a challenging-enough course load. Oh, Physics for Non-Majors, I’ll see you next lifetime…
oh yeah, flannel and birks. I’m a little peeved that I spent my thinnest years in bulky, oversized clothing. Though I probably would have been too self-conscious to wear what the college girls (and HS girls) are wearing today.
I would tell myself to stop worry so much about boys and finding “the one” and just have fun! Also, travel, travel, travel. I moved around to a lot of different cities, but I should have taken my travels abroad.
Speaking of re-reading, I just told JP how I got out of re-reading the other day. Back in my early 20’s I had an insane photographic memory. But every once in a while needed re-jogging…especially if it had been several years since said initial memory. Back in high school being in both drama and advanced lit, we read basically ALL the classics, then in undergrad, we had to read them again. I felt this was a waste of time being that I had aced the first tests on the subjects with flying colors. So using my “skills” I just looked up a synopsis on the lit. and somehow retriggered my memory of basically each page of the freaking book. And aced the tests with flying colors…and then did the same in grad school. Though, now, I could not do that on a whole, why? Because I’m convinced CMU stole most of my brain cells! Grad school….
I think it’s getting older in general. I so wish I had done more with my mind while I still had all of my facilities. But then again, I’m really appreciate the emotional level-out that comes with getting older.