Advice is My Graduation Present

My brother headed off to college (in California!) this morning and my gift to him was the following advice. (I'm sure he would have rather had money but I'm not exactly rolling in the dough...)

Below are some specific words of advice from a former collegian:

Sometimes it’s okay to…
· Stay out until 4 a.m. just because you can.
· Order in pizza twice in one day because you are too busy (or lazy) to go to the dining hall.
· Hit snooze until you barely have enough time to make it to class.
· Call in sick to your internship because you have too much homework to do!
· Go to your professor’s office hours three days in a row because you just don’t get it!
· Get a B – some professors are just jerks.
· Ask your roommate to clean up his freaking side of the room because it is disgusting.
· Join a study group.
· Suck up to your professors/ TAs.
· Give only 75% effort on an assignment because you just don’t have time!
· Have a dirty clothes basket and a dirty-but-you-probably-could-still-wear-it clothes basket.
· Call home because you miss it (although you don’t have to admit that to Mom & Dad at the time).
· Occasionally skip class & have a friend take notes for you.
· Stay in on a Friday night and watch movies because you are too tired to go out.
· Go out on a Tuesday night even if you have an 8am class on Wednesday (you can sleep later).
· Take 15-minute power naps or 3-hour afternoon naps.
· Start drinking coffee or caffeinated soda.
· Work on a project ahead of time because you have other plans around the due date.
· Put off working on a project until the last minute.
· Talk on instant messenger during class if the professor is a bore – but only if you don’t get caught!
· Sit in the back of the class every now and then.
· Sit in the front row and ask lots of questions because it is a subject you are very interested in.
· Do your homework at the beach.
· Be irresponsible occasionally.
· Take a vitamin every day to avoid getting sick – don’t learn the hard way…
· Root for the Cubs even though you are in California.
· Wear your swim trunks to class because you are going swimming right afterward.
· Carry your life in your backpack because your day is packed.
· Get involved in an organization just because it’ll look good on your resume.
· Join an organization because you enjoy it.
· Eat pizza for breakfast & ice-cream for dinner.
· Wear your Ipod around campus because you don’t feel like talking to people at 9 a.m.
· Say no to an invitation if you don’t really want to hang out with that person/ those people.
· Wish you were with your high school friends every now and then.
· Have the most challenging & the best experience of your life.