So hey. My last undergraduate class was today. I know this is basically an insignificant event because I'm just starting grad school in the fall, but still! There are no more undergraduate classes for me to attend, ever! And I got out early! Which sort of seems like a shame even though of course I'm thrilled to shreds any time I can get out of anything early. It feels like, you know, it's these last undergraduate moments, and I should really cherish them and experience them fully.
(I have this same regret about the seventh Harry Potter book. At first I kept a log of my feelings about everything - as I went along I kept taking quick breaks to make little notes like STOP TRYING TO TARNISH DUMBLEDORE'S MEMORY and Awwww, Harry, honey, you have some serious psychological issues to work through - but I quit doing that because I wanted to finish the book faster. Foolish! Why was I crazy? These times only happen once! I should never deny these urges to chronicle. I swear I'm going to get better about journaling.)
It all reminds me of this Doctor Who episode where they go into the future and planet Earth is about to be destroyed, and the doctor's companion is all upset about it, but when the time comes there's a big catastrophe and everyone's too busy saving themselves to pay attention to the fact that Earth is being exploded. It explodes without anyone seeing it. But very many years in the future from now. But still sad for Rose who is a human and not accustomed to time-traveling way into the future.
I basically have six pages of a paper to write (not too fussed about it because I wrote four and a half pages in two hours yesterday), then a massive essay exam, and then a little wee not-too-worrying exam, and then crawfish boil awesomeness with family and friends. (Woohoo!) And graduation in my pretty dress. And then being done, actually done with college, and then having real life, where I pay bills and work extra hours to put myself through graduate school.
Very, very weird.
Part of me feels like college has absolutely flown by without me really noticing, but then I think about it and realize I've been getting older all along. Actually getting older. Not just that years have passed (four years, four years. Wow.) but I've actually done that thing you're supposed to do, that growing up thing that everyone always talks about. With the maturing and the recognizing mistakes and the learning life lessons.
So I thought I'd take this opportunity to be didactic and present several useful life lessons I have discovered over the course of my college career:
1) Of all the pleasant attributes in the world, the one that I think is the most important across the board is self-awareness. Because not everybody needs to be super-smart and not everyone needs to be super-funny or super-nice or super-polite, and it would be boring if everyone had any one quality, except for self-awareness. Everyone should be self-aware. If a genie said he was going to bestow one quality on everyone, and I got to pick, that's what I would choose. This is my number-one most useful lesson of all from my college years. When you are not self-aware, you very frequently become a huge pain in the ass to everyone. The Delphic oracle totally had it right. (Except for that Nothing in Excess crap, but I guess it's fair enough because when they wrote that it was before Oreos were invented.)
2) Trust Anna's judgment and do not mock her for watching a show when you have only seen one or two randomly chosen episodes of it out of an existing 144 (234 if you count Angel too). This will lead you to feel silly later on when your entire life hinges on whether you will get a chance to bond with your family members while watching that show. (I am exaggerating, but only slightly.)
3) Book blogs are from God. This past year I have read numerous excellent books suggested to me by book blogs, and I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner. Thank you, internet, for Special Topics in Calamity Physics, for Martine Leavitt, and for Sarah Waters.
4) I never want to share a room, ever again. Ever. Ever. I won't say I'd rather die, because I wouldn't, but the last two years, when I've had my own room, have been from God. New people are much easier to love when you don't have to sleep in the same room as them.
and last but not least
5) Getting drunk is grand fun when you don't have to worry about driving home. I should do like my mama and marry a guy who doesn't like the taste of alcohol.
There you go. My wisdom from college.
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