Two years ago, I stood in your shoes. You have waited for this day for four years. You checked off all of the boxes: volunteer hours, standardized assessments and the gym requirement. You’ve been accepted into college, you found a roommate and you have a countdown until move in. But before you walk across the stage to receive your diploma, take a moment to think about everything that you have learned over the past four years.
You surely read plenty of Shakespeare and memorized a few geometric theorems. Much of the material you covered in high school will not aid you in your college career, and it certainly won’t be help you get a job post-graduation. However, there are a few lessons that you learned in your first year of formal schooling that you should revisit.
Kindergarten — a simpler time when naps were a required activity and play time was strongly encouraged. It’s been more than a decade since you first let go of your parents’ hands and began the first of many years of education. Besides mastering the ABC’s and counting to 10, you learned a few critical lessons:
Be curious.
When you were little, everything was new and exciting. You asked “why is the sky blue?” and “how can fish breathe underwater?” But as you grew up, you were taught to stay inside the lines and answer multiple choice questions. If you liked science, you were told to be a doctor. If you preferred math, you were told to explore a career in accounting or finance.
When you are trying to choose courses next year, take at least one course each semester that pushes you outside of your comfort zone. If you are a math geek, take an English class. If you like history, take an intro science class. Don’t be narrow minded. You only have four years, so choose your courses wisely.
Not everyone can be the line leader.
Even though we all wanted to be line leader, someone had to be library helper and someone had to be the door holder.
Don’t compare yourself to other people. There will always be someone who scored higher on a test and someone who got a “better” internship. It’s OK. Focus on yourself. It doesn't matter if someone scored a 98 percent on an organic chemistry exam and you only got an 89. You're both in college, you're both going to graduate. Life is good.
Use the buddy system.
Remember in kindergarten when the teacher announced that you were getting new seats. It was such an exciting feeling to get to sit next to someone new – you got to make a new friend. Introduce yourself to the person next to you in the lecture hall, make friends with the people in your dorm (and not just the ones on your floor). Be sure that you have people who are on your team. You’ll need them at 2 a.m. on more than one occasion.
If it doesn’t make you happy, forget about it.
In kindergarten, when you got bored playing with the blocks, you switched to the Play-Doh. If you fell off the swing and scraped your knee, you probably played in the sandbox next time. When you were little, you only focused on the things that made you happy, and if something stopped making you happy, you moved on.
Now, instead of doing the things that you enjoy, you do what will “look good” on your resume, things that will help you to stand out among your peers. Don’t do this. Life moves fast. Focus on the people and things that make you happy.
There is no time to be on the Residence Hall Council just so that you have a leadership role. That’s one hour of your week that you could spend hanging out with friends, sleeping, studying, watching Netflix, reading for pleasure (a crazy concept, I know), sipping coffee, doing laundry or running.
Don’t pursue a minor because it will “make you more attractive to employers.” A minor is about five or six courses. That’s five elective courses of the 30-some classes that you will have the opportunity to take in college. Don’t waste them.
And finally, remember that not every friendship is meant to last. Someone may be your best friend one minute and just a familiar face the next – it’s OK. Let them go. You both will be happier in the end.
You're about to begin a new chapter in your life. Enjoy every minute of it — and don't forget what you learned in kindergarten.
