Rachel's Tips for Success

Eating Brandon's mom's french toast, getting acquainted with Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, being introduced to marshmallow and peanut butter sandwiches, bowling with Brandon and his parents, finishing potluck puzzles, lying in the tanning bed, getting annoyed with dogs, going to the dentist, shopping in Lexington, hiking everywhere, dyeing Easter eggs, seeing the moonbow (which might have been the coolest thing ever), receiving candy from two Easter bunnies, and spending time with the most important people in my life: my family and my boyfriend.
 
This was Spring Break '08, baby! Woooooo!!!
 
And now I'm back at Centre. What I'm feeling right now isn't the usual excited state I'm in whenever I arrive back to campus. Just this morning I was eating peanut butter chocolate eggs and pretending the Easter bunny still existed...and now I'm back at school? And I have to do work?!? School sucks sometimes. I want more break, I want more sleep, I want to spend more time with my mommy...and I definitely want to be free of school work and responsibility. Oh well, I guess I can't always get what I want.
 
Right now it's 3 a.m. and I'm procrastinating when I should be finding resources for a paper I have to write for my BIO 110 class. You don't want to do this when you get to college. Procrastination is bad. It's one thing I've still not been able to overcome. But on a happier note, my paper is going to be about King Penguins; I really like penguins, and I also really like the class that I'm writing it for, so I think I'm okay with being awake.  
 
I feel like the last two paragraphs are pretty lame. I'm trying to be a more positive person and the vibe I'm receiving from what I just wrote is pretty negative. So to try to compensate for that I'm going to share some things I've learned over the past half semester that I think are useful for surviving college. I guess they're things I've found that have helped me; hopefully they will be helpful to someone else too.

• Take small steps - For me, this has become key. When I try to think about all the work I have to do I get really overwhelmed, but when I look at everything separately and try to get through things one step at a time, it really doesn't seem all that bad. I stress out a lot less, and get a lot more done.
  
• Do what you are passionate about - When I first got here, I had no clue where my life was going...honestly I still don't. But I'm learning what things I love and what things I don't. I'm thinking about classes I would like to take, and subjects I never want to deal with again. I'm learning that I need to take some classes that I just want to take, not because I need them for my major, but because I think I'd love them.
  
• Find someone to rely on/share your feelings with - And I'm not talking about someone you can rely on to party it up with on the weekends, or someone you can share your feelings with about how lame the frat parties were last night. I think a really important part of not only college, but life in general, is building strong relationships. Obviously, in college, you will make tons of friends, but I think it's crucial to have at least one that you can open up to completely and trust them to be there for you when you need them. Whether it's a roommate, a teammate, a best friend, a boyfriend, or a girlfriend, I think it's a necessity. For me, my boyfriend Brandon has become that person, and having someone I know will be there to support me has helped me be a calmer, more relaxed person.
  
• Don't be afraid of failure - I think a lot of people have issues with this some time in their life. I might be wrong, but I know that I do. But I'm learning that failure is a part of life, and to learn how to move forward you have to take a few steps back first. I think one of my new favorite quotes is one of Thomas Edison's. He said, "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." I think that is pretty encouraging.