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.

The Yates School of Post-Graduate Studies

This is my very fancy way of announcing that after I graduate (and once life calms down a bit) I am going to compile a list of subjects and begin to seek out as much information about them as I can. And then I will tackle learning about each subject individually, using the library, the internet, and possibly former professors as my resources. 

I’ve realized that in my four years in college, I’ve encountered a lot of subjects that I’ve found fascinating, but haven’t had the time to devote all of my attention to. Just now, as I am faced with only Buddhism and Personal Finance finals left, I suddenly have boatloads of time to gingerly and lovingly soak up all of the information, and I’m learning far more in this manner than I would trying to cramcramcram it all into my brain (my choice study method, ever since high school).

Here is a sneak-peek at the prospective curriculum:

• Greek Mythology
• The Renaissance
• Shakespeare’s Sonnets
• Mediterranean Cooking
• Astrology
• Silent Films
• Beginner’s French and Greek
• The Great Classical Composers

And I will try to revisit Positive Psychology, Women’s Studies, Philosophy and Buddhism, which I took as college courses.

And I will start up a new Summer Reading List as well.

And I will edit the hell out of my first short story, so I can try to send it out for publication come September.

Geez, this is already a very busy summer.