[Industrialblog,
September 16, 2004]
Advice for the readers still in college
1. You will receive lots of contradictory advice. Part of growing up is to be able to sort out contradictory advice and decide which applies to your situation. Good luck. [Note: A friend of mine notes that if you are looking for a lot of advice, go into a bar when it opens and sit in the bar until it closes. Repeat for a week. Lots of advice to head your way.]
2. No matter how far someone older than you has screwed up their life, they still can be a cautionary example for you :) Seriously. Sort of. My point is you can learn from anyone.
3. If you are suffering suicidal ideation on a regular basis, you need to ease up on the bottle. They're not kidding about alcohol as a depressant. If you are so depressed that you are having suicidal thoughts on a regular basis and you drink a lot, you may need to put down the bottle — and even watch out for sugar and carbs. Just in case you're a mood-sensitive sort.
4. No matter what anyone tells you, almost everyone's life is better outside of college. You may think you'll never experience as much freedom as you have now and that you'll just be a wage slave ... bullshit. Life begins after college. Work humanizes people and makes them easier to deal with. I saw it in Peace Corps. Those who had worked for a living before Peace Corps were quick to cooperate with others and treat everyone decently. Those who formed cliques and acted exclusionary were to a person recent college grads ... and every one of them changed their attitude after a few months at post. So if people are telling you this is the best years of your life, and you're not happy, don't sweat it. Life gets better.
5. When in doubt, remember this: Our forefathers who build this country didn't build it believing the meaning of existence was to live a life of leisure. Cold, hard prairies, eking out existence, silent prayers and gratitude and all that. Our ancestors didn't believe you were on this planet to have a good time. They didn't believe life was fair. When in doubt, remember you aren't supposed to be that at home here, that you are a pilgrim on the way to another country. That is, when in doubt, walk swiftly toward the Lord and you will avoid heaps and heaps of trouble.
6. You need money and you will want money. If you go for money, by the time you are 35 you will wish you had followed your bliss. This is as it should be. If you follow your bliss, you will wish at 35 that you had money. This will make you bitter. Choose your major wisely. If I had to do it again, I'd choose a hard science or a professional degree such as engineering. If you have a technical degree you can always get a high-paying sales job. I don't know what you should do. I only know that in 15 years, you're either gonna be glad you have some money or you're gonna be pissed you don't.
7. Don't stress if you don't know stuff. The best advice you will hear is good judgment comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgment.
8. If you're ever in jail and you find that you get along famously with everyone, then perhaps you need to take some time during your incarceration to reflect. People in jail are criminals. If you're getting along with criminals, you may be one.
9. Read The Brothers Karamazov. Everything you need to know is in there. The entire world prose canon in eight books: Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, Karamazov, Heart of Darkness, Ulysses and Pale Fire. You get through them and you can fake your way through most literary conversations.
10. Poetry is about meter. Just in case you get confused. I know I did.
2. No matter how far someone older than you has screwed up their life, they still can be a cautionary example for you :) Seriously. Sort of. My point is you can learn from anyone.
3. If you are suffering suicidal ideation on a regular basis, you need to ease up on the bottle. They're not kidding about alcohol as a depressant. If you are so depressed that you are having suicidal thoughts on a regular basis and you drink a lot, you may need to put down the bottle — and even watch out for sugar and carbs. Just in case you're a mood-sensitive sort.
4. No matter what anyone tells you, almost everyone's life is better outside of college. You may think you'll never experience as much freedom as you have now and that you'll just be a wage slave ... bullshit. Life begins after college. Work humanizes people and makes them easier to deal with. I saw it in Peace Corps. Those who had worked for a living before Peace Corps were quick to cooperate with others and treat everyone decently. Those who formed cliques and acted exclusionary were to a person recent college grads ... and every one of them changed their attitude after a few months at post. So if people are telling you this is the best years of your life, and you're not happy, don't sweat it. Life gets better.
5. When in doubt, remember this: Our forefathers who build this country didn't build it believing the meaning of existence was to live a life of leisure. Cold, hard prairies, eking out existence, silent prayers and gratitude and all that. Our ancestors didn't believe you were on this planet to have a good time. They didn't believe life was fair. When in doubt, remember you aren't supposed to be that at home here, that you are a pilgrim on the way to another country. That is, when in doubt, walk swiftly toward the Lord and you will avoid heaps and heaps of trouble.
6. You need money and you will want money. If you go for money, by the time you are 35 you will wish you had followed your bliss. This is as it should be. If you follow your bliss, you will wish at 35 that you had money. This will make you bitter. Choose your major wisely. If I had to do it again, I'd choose a hard science or a professional degree such as engineering. If you have a technical degree you can always get a high-paying sales job. I don't know what you should do. I only know that in 15 years, you're either gonna be glad you have some money or you're gonna be pissed you don't.
7. Don't stress if you don't know stuff. The best advice you will hear is good judgment comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgment.
8. If you're ever in jail and you find that you get along famously with everyone, then perhaps you need to take some time during your incarceration to reflect. People in jail are criminals. If you're getting along with criminals, you may be one.
9. Read The Brothers Karamazov. Everything you need to know is in there. The entire world prose canon in eight books: Don Quixote, Tristram Shandy, Madame Bovary, Moby Dick, Karamazov, Heart of Darkness, Ulysses and Pale Fire. You get through them and you can fake your way through most literary conversations.
10. Poetry is about meter. Just in case you get confused. I know I did.
Man is that ever true. Life is so much better when you're actually doing something so useful that you not only don't have to pay people to take it, they pay you to do it.
It's hard to describe how much better that feels.
OK so now that I've confessed I'm not Bill...
where was I?
Oh yes #4 -- (There is no rule #4)...life outside of college is better than inside. I had a great time in college...and you still could not pay me to go back. Nope nope nope... and I spent a whole decade in college racking up 3 of there fancy de-grees and I had a great time with great people for each one of them and you still couldn't pay me to go back. Live well in college. Live well after. Collect funny stories from each facet of your life to keep you laughing. Much better life after college. Come on in, the water is fine...and the money is better....
Yeah, the paychecks are nice. Frankly, though, doing something which is about others is tremendously more gratifying than the self-absorption of college. Everything in college is about yourself — getting the grade, getting the diploma.
Everything in work is about other people. Yes, you're doing it for personal gain, but you're also making the world a better place by doing so, even if in very small ways. But every macdonalds server who serves someone food has made that person's life better.
All of the good that someone gave while in college was, for the most part, extra-curricular. Life after college is being part of society, not just wrapped up in yourself.