Not a College Drop Out

So I basically have all but my degree in hand. I have had my final evaluations, reviews and reflections and passed (ten credits of A would have been nicer than ten credits of P, but I'll take what I can get). I have completed the last step in a long process of getting my college degree. I am now waiting for that little, embossed piece of paper to come to me in the mail so I can put in it the gold encrusted folder I got in April.

So why do I feel like I just got out of high school?

Granted it wasn't too long ago I was walking through the halls of my HS alma mater, and it probably didn't help that one of my students the other day asked me if I had graduated college, when I said 'almost' she said,
'You still look like you're in high school.'
Hey thanks.

All things considered,  I did learn a lot in college (cue sigh of relief from my parents). I learned lots about English, like how to write an essay in a post modern lens on an article a critic wrote in a feminist lens that was written about psychoanalytic book. And how to diagram gerunds, compound sentences and past participles. Also how to speed read novels and still catch the stuff that will be discussed in class. Lots of nerdy English stuff, but more than that, college is one of those things that you just get better at as you go through. You 'learn the ropes'. I believe I did a pretty good job in assimilating myself into the college world and completing it as well as one could have hoped. I, being an almost fresh college grad, want to share those little tips with anyone interested, I'm sure you'll be able to relate and hopefully realize you're pretty good at college too.

1. Buying books will always infuriate you. 

As my poetry professor said on day in class at a very conservative university 'what they do to you at the book store starts with 'R' and ends in 'ape''. And how correct he is. Yet somehow, but the end of the semester, I held onto the $45 with a surprising amount happiness (probably cause it's the only cash I'll have all semester) that I got back for the $400 worth of books I bought at the beginning. I tried out the alternatives, I bought books from Amazon for half the price and stressed about getting them here on time. I bought them from the small independent book sellers in Rexburg but they didn't always have the right edition (which will screw you every time. For one rewritten sentence in the index). It is just so convenient to buy from the book store, but at every single check out, I wondered if I would be getting my $75 worth out of those three pages stapled together and that that staple better be made of solid gold.

2. You will hate yourself for putting off that giant assignment that is due at 8 am, which is in 6 hours. 

Somethings we will simply never learn. One of them is most giant projects only get suckier the closer the due date is. No matter how many times you have cursed yourself for having to write a 10 page paper in one sitting, or for having do your entire midterm project in one night, or having a huge test to study for that closes in an hour, we all have more than one experience of this happening. I'm a pretty organized and diligent student and this happened to me plenty.

After about three semesters I think I figured out why we never learn to stop our procrastination and I learned to look at this constant predicament from a new perspective. 'This will make a great story someday' and 'why do homework when you could play now, and take care of that stuff later'. You are in college. You are making memories that will last you your whole life. You will not remember spending an evening in the library writing a paper like a responsible young adult. But you will remember going on an adventure, possibly seriously injuring someones car, going to a fantastic Mom and Pop restaurant or having a karaoke fest in your apartment and then writing that paper at one in the morning. In my humble opinion, I'll take option two (and lived to tell the tale). And we all know that for some reason, the papers we write at one in the morning turn out a decent grade anyway.

3. For girls: Crying does help, but save it for your apartment and keep it to twice a semester tops.

Sometimes all you need is a good cry for no real reason other than you have a lot to do. I found that during those moments of mass emotion, a great companion are baked goods or the food your roommates offer you. But if you are crying on campus, you will probably be brought up at people's apartments you don't know that night as the 'random girl that was crying for no reason in a corner by herself'. Take it home, let it out and then get started on whatever it is that made you cry in the first place.

4. Food will always taste better if you didn't have to buy or cook it.

No matter how much you enjoy cooking, when you are in school, it will always taste better if you don't have to make it and it may as well be Parisian cuisine if you don't have to pay for it either. Whether a roommate cooked it, someone took you to dinner, someone brought over baked things, a catered school or church sponsored event, on a day when you have been at work, school and extra curricular all day, the last thing you want to worry about it preparing something or going and getting something. Sometimes you just get lucky and food all but falls in your lap. One of the blessing of just living your life right.


4a. Food fixes any problem.

Bad day? Brownies.
Tons of homework? Ice cream.
Really tired? Quesadilla.
Bad mood? Burger and fries.

On the flip side, no problems? Make a good day great.

Fun with friends? Get a carton of Eggnog to finish of in a matter of five minutes.
Watching your favorite movie? Make a cake with lots of add ins and frosting.
Good date? Talk it over with roommates when you get home while eating the weight of a large cat in chips and salsa.


5. Sleep comes in all forms, in all places and at any time.

This may be biased because I have no qualms when it comes to sleeping in public, but when you are in school, sleep in a perk and you take advantage of it anytime it presents itself, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. I slept all the time, but here's the kicker and the mark of an expert, never sleeping in class. I slept on benches, in overstuffed chairs, against walls, in library carrolls or on the grass in nice weather. If there was ever a half hour break in between classes I knew exactly which of my favorite nap places was on the way to my next class, I'd set my phone alarm and allow the power nap to commence.

For those of you at BYU-I the best places are those little blue benches in the Hart, the chairs on the landing in the Hinckley, the couches with the automatons in the Ricks or the second floor of the library on a whole. But try hard as I may (and believe me I did since I was there all the time), there is nowhere good to sleep in the Smith.

Campus' wouldn't have such comfy furniture if they didn't expect people to sleep on it. It's an invitation, graciously and fairly frequently accepted by yours truly...And I loved every minute of it.

6. Always have an internal backup plan.

Everyone fails at least one test in school. If you haven't yet, it'll come. If you never did, I don't want to know. I blatantly failed one test my second semester. It was humanities and very poorly written. I took the test and went to Women's Chorus which was my last class where I was holding back tears all through choir (see 'crying does help, just not on campus'). I thought my life was over. I thought that from there on out I was going to do terrible and that I was never going to get my grades up and that I should just quit now and a lot of other over dramatic things.

Then I realized that I could always just retake the class. Yeah that would suck and cost that much more tuition and set you back that much but (being a very grade oriented person) at least I could replace that crappy grade with a respectable one. This thought process followed me until my last semester, because by your last semester, you can't really be counting on retaking classes unless you want to delay your graduation 4 months. As life would have it, I never had to retake a class, but I tell you, every single midterm, I honestly saw myself signing up for at least one of those classes again, and then that made everything better, knowing that there was something I could do to make up for my current oversights

The sooner you have your own backup plan, the happier and less stressed you will be, even if you never actually use it.


Lastly, 7. homework will always get done. 

I don't know how, but every assignment I stressed about for weeks, every paper I had no idea how to start, every book I thought I could not get through, somehow always got done. Homework and school are so important and I am clearly a full advocate of getting your education (that whole becoming a teaching thing) but I also am a firm advocate of keeping your sanity. If you stress out and spend all of your time on homework, you will hate your life and turn in crappy homework. If you take a break, clear your mind, trust yourself and have a little fun, I guarantee you will get your homework done faster, with better quality and as previously stated, while living your college experience to the fullest.