I recently attended a graduation party for a friend’s daughter who is heading off to college this year, as the dinner progressed and glasses of wine went down, nostalgia took roots around the table.
We all started to remember our own experiences from that first day/week at college and the conversation turned to so what would we say to ourselves in the past (or to this charming young lady) on this occasion of first day at college. So here goes.
A few words of advice for the new college student
Define your own halo: We all bring something to the classroom or the meeting room or our conference calls. Those who lead or excel are those who know what they are good at and do not pine for what they are not! Some of us have commanding physical presence and alter the dynamics of a classroom or meeting just by being present while others have the sharp intellect to pierce through the toughest problems and some have the knack of asking the right questions. I wish I learnt this lesson sooner because then I would busy defining my own strengths or my “halo” and not emulating someone else’s characteristics.
Cast your net wide: A new College or even a new workplace setting is perfect and at times the only opportunity to interact with a variety of folks and to form lifelong relationships. I wish I would have perhaps been part of more clubs or groups to get to know a wider set of friends than my current set of largely engineering focused group.
This also leads to another very important word i.e. “networking”, most of us treat this as a necessary activity to be done during recruiting semesters or in professional life when we are looking for a change in jobs; however, that is the worst time to “network”. Networking is a lifelong activity; it is more focused on giving and connecting people around you. Thus, wider your net better chances of you being an effective networker.
Be on a lookout for love, inspiration, and sleaze bags: I found the love of my life during my undergraduate years; I wish the same for others. Equally important is to be open to inspirations coming your way from different sources be it an interesting class that you take or a project that you do with a professor for some extra credits or a lab assistant’s job to pay for that new iPhone.
A good friend of mine; one of the sharpest minds that I know and he was supposedly doing great being in computer science program in undergraduate; his future was bright that he did need to wear shades (sorry I reveal my age, look up that song J) but he was unhappy because despite all this something did not click. Then during one summer he decided not to go home and rather do a project on linguistics. That summer changed his life, he found his passion, since then he has done and continues to do great things in the field of linguistics. One should always be open to such inspiration, life is rarely linear. Finally, like being on the lookout for love and inspiration always be wary and careful of the sleaze bags you will find in college and in life, if something or someone is too good to be true then probably it is.
Everyone is winging it: It sure may appear that some of us have everything figured out right from day one of college or for that matter life but the truth is we are all winging it, some with more information and some with less. This does not mean that one should not strive to get more information or lose confidence but there is a certain comfort in knowing that at some level we are all in the same boat, in college and in life. Yes dear! Parents are winging it too J. The best advice I got on winging it was from one of my professors in my freshman year, “always be like a duck, calm and unruffled at the top but underneath paddle like the devil.”
