College Strategies

Lesson 2: The Search for Food and Comfort: Making Friends

Beyond friends

Don’t think that networking is something you do with company representatives; maybe that person you openly hated in first year will end up as a CEO of a company you want to do business with. In other words; by trying to be friendly in general you do not only make friends for life, you also avoid people still hating you twenty years down the road when it really matters.

Also be aware of college gossip; do not trust a person with an intimate detail or secret if you do not (yet) know them well. Looking honest and being honest are two different things and many corrupt leaders went to college. Someone can look like a friend and turn out to be an enemy. Do not do anything you do not want leaking out, and if you must do it don’t tell anyone. If you are doing anything that does not seem quite right people will definitely talk! Popular ‘mistakes’ made in college that people generally regret are two-timing, stealing, vandalizing, drug abuse, sleeping around, etc. I am saying you should be yourself, and if that is you then go ahead. This lesson is not meant to turn you into a saint or a perfect scholar; it is meant to give you the facts. A good rule of thumb is: if you are not going to mention it to your best friend or parents, don’t do it! This means it is probably something you are definitely not proud of.

Often students feel pressured into the actions described above, even if they are really not into it. You can say now you will never do anything other people tell you to do. But I you are lonely and far from home you might actually give in to ‘belong’. Friends who do not like you for you are not real friends to start with, and with over 60 thousand students in the average college it should not be hard to find another crowd to be with. Don’t do what you do not want to do or know is wrong. Offences are often noted on your academic record. Being suspended for drug abuse or for plagiarism is not something you want a future employer to read about you, so avoid it! Especially if you are not that kind of person anyways, but you were pressured into it by your new friends.

If you take your education seriously, hang out with people who do too. Just because someone goes to college does not mean they are serious about it. And just because someone knows how to party does not mean they do not take their education seriously. You have to know when to relax and when to work, but beware that college is not meant to be a vacation. People who see it that way will eventually fall on their nose. The main thing is; stay true to yourself, this is the real world and anything you do that can be seen as a criminal offence has definite long term consequences. Plagiarism is just as much a part of that as illegal drug abuse.

You can be whoever you want to be! But make sure you think long and hard before your turn into someone you do not want to be at all.

  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8