What I learned in college:

- Be a freshman, and use this to your advantage. Have meaningful, intellectual deep chats with professors and with delightful upperclassmen. Surprise them with your age. Get personally recommended for higher-level courses and consistant invites to the coolest parties in town.

- Long distance relationships in college can absolutely, 100% work. But not if they make you cry yourself to sleep.

- I don’t do clubs.

- I became best friends with my parents after I moved out of their house.

- Wine is the only thing I will ever have in my liquor cabinet.

- I am no more eloquent or extroverted than I was in high school.

- I hate the word “millennial.” Also the word “orifice.” I’m okay with “moist,” though.

- People will tell you that all of your birthdays past 21 don’t matter. This is a common lie told by cantankerous old farts.

- Live on Long Island for long enough, and you too will turn into an angry New York Driver.

- I have the rest of my life to study abroad. 

- Home is where the Christmas lights are.

- It feels wonderful to have a cause worth fighting (or rallying) for.

- Be wary of people who find too much pleasure in making fun of others.

- Don’t ever go to Nassau University Medical Center.

- Spend money on (sharable) experiences, rather than just stuff.

- It’s all about balance, or finding peace in the imbalance.

- Repairing an old friendship is the best.

- Share your wildest dreams with others who ask you about them. Maybe they can help you achieve them, you never know. 

- The more often you experience flow, the better your life will be. (thank you, positive psych)

- Know your rights. Keep abreast of the changing laws involving the internet and social media (thank you, mass media & the law)

- Be aware of the base world that you inhabit. Be aware of the worlds that the people around you inhabit. (thank you, buddhism)

- Read books slowly. You skip over all the delicious morsels when you skim. (thank you, english lit)

- Always have a creative outlet. 

- As RHCP says, “Choose not the life of limitation.” I went to college with this mantra, then reluctantly left it behind, and then reclaimed it again. And things have never been better.

- Just do what feels good, without hurting yourself or others.

First Floor Musings

His laugh was more of a giggle, one that a baritone toddler might emit if you tickled his belly. He laughs like he has two brain cells in his head.