Urban Dictionary defines a "yes man" as:
"Your party counterpart that will agree to *anything* regardless of how crazy or stupid - and sometimes illegal - it is, who can meet or beat your intoxication level and still remain as coherent as you are."
While this may be applicable to college life, I prefer this version from Danny Wallace in the movie, "Yes Man":
"Probably some of the best things that have ever happened to you in life, happened because you said yes to something. Otherwise things just sort of stay the same."
College is a unique time where you can say yes to a multitude of things you could not before college, and cannot after college. If you say no, you'll never know what could happen. The world is your playground.
College is the perfect time to live with "no ragrets." When your friend asks you to join a club with her, say yes even if you're a member of three other clubs. What's the worst that can happen? You don't have the time so you quit. There's no shame in saying, "Hey, I put too much on my plate this semester and need to drop something." The happiest people know that good things come to those who allow them to.
College isn't about taking the easy way out. Put too much on your plate. Put so much on your plate that it's overflowing. If you miss a few meetings, you miss a few meetings. They aren't paying you, so what risk do you have in joining?
Say yes to the Wednesday wine night with your friends even though you wanted to get to bed early. I've enjoyed life so much more by saying yes instead of no.
Say yes to going to a bar on a Tuesday even though you know you probably shouldn't. After graduation, you won't remember the times you stayed in and went to bed early. You'll remember the time you embarrassed yourself singing karaoke with your friends at a bar on a Tuesday night. Yes, I did it. No, I don't regret it. And yes, I will do it again.
This isn't to say that you should dismiss all homework and tests to party with your friends on every weeknight. But, every once in a while, finish your homework early or put it off until the morning to do something you can talk about for years.
Play in your sorority IM game even though you've never played basketball in your life. You know that you would've taken an hour-long social media break from your homework anyway, so you might as well be productive.
"Take the stupidest thing you've ever done. At least it's done. It's over. It's gone. We can all learn from our mistakes and heal and move on. But it's harder to learn or heal or move on from something that hasn't happened; something we don't know and is therefore indefinable; something which could very easily have been the best thing in our lives, if only we'd taken the plunge, if only we'd held our breath and stood up and done it, if only we'd said yes." -Danny Wallace, Yes Man.
Hold your breath, jump into college (or the dirty lake on campus), or else you'll never know what could have happened. College isn't a time to abnegate yourself of potential opportunities so you can get enough sleep or get an extra hour of studying in. Take the path less travelled and say "yes" to more than you have time for. Let the short answer always be yes.
