Posts Tagged ‘advice’
Advice on Life, Love, and Athletics
Next time your day is down in the dumps with nowhere to look but up, check out this blog post. I will share the advice I give myself and advice I have picked up over time from others in hopes of brightening your gloomiest days. Nothing is more exciting than a fresh outlook on things be it life in general, love, or athletics.
Let us begin with life. Life is a very broad topic to cover so I’m going to focus on the basics that relate to most college students. The biggest part of a college student’s life is generally their friends. My advice for friendship is to be non-judgmental. I have had to work on this especially since I have been in college. It’s hard to not judge what your friends are doing when it doesn’t agree with the way you are. When people come to college, it’s often the first time people are free from authority. This freedom leads many college students into new atmospheres and they may begin to seem as if they’re changing as people. Try to remember that deep down they are the same friends you’ve always known, and try not to judge them just because their decisions don’t mesh with yours. My second piece of life advice is to be a friend. You can’t expect to make friends if you aren’t being a friend. Say hi to people you pass on the street, be encouraging, and always be trustworthy. People like people they can trust with their deepest secrets. Finally, have a happy outlook. Wake up to everyday like it’s a new day. Dwelling on yesterday only sets you back from moving forward.
Next let’s talk love. Love isn’t only for relationships. I always try to remind myself to be a loving person. Being this type of person requires patience, listening more than speaking, and the strength to bite your tongue once in a while. If you are a loving person, then you can respect yourself and find love in other people. Love for family is very important in college. Keeping contacts with your family members while you’re away will give you the boost you need and it will make them feel special because you remembered to call when they know you’re a very busy college student. Now for those special relationships, my advice first and foremost is communication. College can be hectic for relationships because you are both making new friends, possibly at different schools, and it’s hard to keep tabs on everything that’s going on in each other’s lives. Talking to each other about what you’re doing and who you’re going to be with helps the other person to gain trust and remain stress free while you’re out having fun. In order to make your college relationship last you have to trust the other person and remain loyal yourself.
Lastly, my biggest advice for athletics is hard work. By the time you’re competing in college, everyone has worked hard to get there. You can’t skate by as an athlete anymore. The college athletes that are their best are the ones that work the hardest. Run the extra stride, put the extra weight on the bar, and drink the extra glass of water, anything you need to be at the top of your game. Secondly, never underestimate the competition. You might smoke a team one game, and then the next get crushed because you went into it thinking you had the win in the bag. Play every game, run every race, swim every stroke, like it’s the championship. Play like you’re playing the best competition in the league. Never let up and you’ll never lose out. My final athletic advice is to take care of yourself. If you feel pain, talk you your trainer. The slightest injuries can become major if they aren’t taken care of. Always remember to Ice, stretch, and rest.
I hope my advice will make your life a little easier and your days a little sunnier.
-Speedy G.
I’m reading Think American Government
Surviving College 101: What to Expect in Your First Semester of College
- You and everyone else will be completely overwhelmed and stressing out about not being/looking overwhelmed. It is great to meet a lot of new people and be a part of the college community, but on the flip side you’re living amongst complete strangers in an unfamiliar spot. Stress.
- Unless you’re coming from a prep school like Exeter, expect a lot more work for a lot less pay-off. An hour or two of work in high school meant an “A.” In college, 10-15 hours of work might earn a “B.”
- A lot of people drinking themselves stupid every night. It’s really important to remember that the kids you see out every night are not doing well in school with rare exceptions, and the rest of them are picking one or two nights a week. It just looks like everyone is out all the time, when in reality it’s a rotation. The same goes for studying. It may seem like everyone’s goofing off constantly but a lot of students are closet studiers.
- A lot more diversity that you’re ready for. I don’t mean skin color or nationality, I mean value systems. I assumed when I walked on to campus that a lot of young, liberal people would think the way I did but there was actually a lot of diversity of thought.
- Probably some loneliness and a lot of people scrambling to find friendships. Everyone is scared and nervous, so that should give you something to bond over!
Thanks for reading, and best wishes to a successful first semester.
Wonderbread
I’m reading Human Resource Management
Considering Changing Your Major?
College is a time of change, discovery and exploration so it naturally follows that 6 out of every 9 students changes their major at least once. For some it is
easier than others. For example, if you start out as a psychology major and switch to mechanical engineering mid-way through junior year, you will effectively be starting over. Changing a major can be expensive and time-consuming so it’s worth weighing carefully but for some it is absolutely the right choice. Struggling through two years of coursework to get to a great career is one thing, but grinning and bearing it through poorly suited coursework to get to a mediocre career is a whole other ball game. I tortured my upper-class friends in the months before I had to choose my major, ensnaring them with promises of Goldfish crackers and Red Bull in my room, then plying them for advice on classes and majors. Some gems that came out of my mouth during this period:
“Maybe I should major in politics! I hate politics and I can figure out exactly why it annoys me so much!”
“Who wants to sit around and think all day? How is that useful? I’d bet philosophy sucks. You’re a phi major—does it suck?”
I know, queen of tact over here. Luckily my friends are not easily offended. I latched onto Art History early in the semester before I had to decide, sophomore fall. One calendar week before declaring I saw a movie, Exit Through a Gift Shop that confirmed a nagging feeling in my stomach that I don’t really ‘believe’ in the value of learning to interpret art enough to devote two years of my time to it. A similar experience can happen with almost any major, whether you realize a year into your pre-med courses that you’re going to be doing A LOT of unexciting memorization of the composition of things you can’t see, to discovering that pre-law comes with a lot of tedious reading and cutthroat competition at every stage in the game. As much homework as I had put into researching my major, at the last minute I changed. I consider myself lucky. What if you don’t realize in time? What facts should you consider?
- Change in financial aid: There are specific scholarships and grants offered by colleges and universities for students who are enrolled in specific programs. If students are receiving one of these scholarships and change their major, they run the risk of losing the financial aid or receiving a smaller award.
- Added time (read: expense) in school, costing in both credit hours and lost earning potential.
- Unmatched skill set. Are you struggling to pass the requirements for your major? Many universities will give you an overall GPA and a departmental GPA that can hurt your resume in your field of choice.
- Wasted credits. Can you put those credits not applicable to the major you want to change to towards a minor?
- Passion for the subject. Warning flags you should be on the watch for: dreading classes that fulfill your major’s requirements, continually researching other majors, a nagging feeling that you’re not doing what you really want to do.
- You fell into your major. Did you pick the major because it was the path of least resistance? i.e., your English classes came easily to you so you concluded that it would be good to be an English major. This might not necessarily be the case, and the cause of that nagging feeling that you’re in the wrong major.
- Career choices. Are they too narrow? Are you worried that your major isn’t what your future employers won’t be looking for? Consider that your choice in major might not have as big an effect on future careers as you think, as the blurb below from Suite101 addresses.
“Before changing your major to increase your career potential, find out if your major actually is incompatible with your career goals. . . instead of changing your major, you might just need to get someinternships in your field of interest. ” – Suite 101
It may mean some extra work at a busy time in your life, but considering your options carefully and doing some ‘homework’ on the topic can be a real game-changer (thank you election cycle of 2000 for making that a buzz word). Best of luck and thanks for reading.
Wonderbread
I’m reading Hole’s Human Anatomy and Physiology
Sites used: http://www.youngmoney.com/careers/career-advice/037_217/
http://www.suite101.com/content/should-you-change-your-major-a43536
Never Pull an All-Nighter Again (unless you want to)
The All-Nighter: a panic and caffeine-fueled attempt to cobble together an acceptable academic document such as an essay, lab report, or problem set. Usually directly followed by The Mad Dash to wherever said document is due.
If you are entering freshman year or are a chronic procrastinator, this post is for you. You cannot write a quality paper in one night. It’s just not going to happen. If you were here in person I would grab your face and squeeze your cheeks together like that aunt you avoid at family gatherings, look deeply into your wonderfully naive eyes and tell you not to sell yourself short like that. OK? They sound romantic and
so…college, I hear you. But it’s like trying to lose ten pounds in a day. You’re not going to reach your goal and you’ll feel like crap the next day. Shaky anxiety from too much caffeine and falling behind on everything else in life does not have to be part of your college experience, nor do you have to spend all your time in the library. Here’s how:
If you have time to get schoolwork done during the day, use it. Nighttime is full of distractions. All your friends are out of class, meal times run long, better TV shows are on. You get the point, the list is endless.
When it comes to writing a paper, give yourself ten hours for a 3-5 pager, double that for a 10-pager, and so on. If you use a calendar like Google or Ical (which I highly recommend), use those time guidelines as a rule of thumb and give yourself a day as a cushion. Any more than that is unrealistic if you’re a procrastinator.
One thing I try to avoid is scheduling huge blocks of time devoted to writing. It sets you up for dread and procrastination. Everyone operates differently, though. Pay attention to how you are most productive and use that to your advantage on your next big project. Also key is working out the finer points of your paper while doing mundane tasks. Whether that’s making your drive/walk to class every morning, or cleaning your Superhero figurine collection (I’m not judging, I swear). Keeping your paper on the backburner of your brain will keep you from pulling an all-nighter.
One last thing, and I realize this is oddly specific and personal but it took me a while to figure out and might help you, too. I find that sometimes a cup of calming tea is better than coffee or energy drinks to write. It gets you out of “HOLY SHIT I HAVE TO GET SOMETHING ON PAPER OR I’M GOING TO FAIL” mode to an “okay, let’s take this one step at a time” mindset.
Still having problems writing that “A” paper? Coming soon…. How To Write a Paper So Wickedly Fantastic Your Professor Will Try to Pass it Off As His Own Kids’. The length of that title was completely necessary, thanks for asking.
Wonderbread
I’m reading Anatomy and Physiology: The Unity of Form and Function
