Hey friends!
Soooo it's been a while... oops 🙈 I hope everything is going great for my anonymous fans! I wanna apologize for not posting in basically a hundred years. I wanna say that I was taking a nap and just waiting for a prince to wake me up, but I'm not about that ish. I was working on graduating. These last two years have been a whirlwind of craziness and adventure, life has honestly been a real roller coaster. I've made new friends and I lost old friends. I've gained some new habits and lost some old ones. And you know some other third thing.
But anyways, I'm in grad school now! *cue applause*
No matter how amazing these past 4 years have been, if I could go back in time and do things a little differently I totally would! Senior year was a huge learning experience for me and I realized that I my life would have been totally different if I had lived by my senior year philosophy. Here's a short summary of all my thoughts on what I'd do differently.
1) Live everyday to the fullest
Grades are important. But your mental health is more important. There were a times that I pushed doing something interesting and new in order to study. And sure, I got good grades but at the end of the day your grades are only one part of who you are, they don't define you.
2) Do stuff without your friends
Your friends don't want to do something? Or you don't want to do something that they're doing? Who even cares? You do you. Don't let anyone define you or change you. It might seem like a huge deal at the time, but in 4 years you most likely won't even be in the same state. Your true friends are going to love you for who you are, not who you pretend to be.
3) Find your true friends
College is great, you're meeting new people everyday for what seems like the entire first semester. If you don't like someone, don't talk to them. If it weren't for my two best friends I have no clue how I would have even gotten through college. They were there for me absolutely whenever I needed them. It's nice to boast that you have 100 friends but at the end of the day if people aren't going to be there for you, it doesn't really matter.
4) Use add drop period wisely
Don't go in thinking that you definitely want to take a class. The smartest thing I ever saw done was by my lab mate. He'd sign up for about 3-4 different electives just to get a feel of which one would be the most interesting. Then he'd drop the other ones at the end of add/drop. Literally if you're not doing this, drop everything you're doing and go add some classes you think are interesting!
5) Take classes outside your major
My best semesters were those when I had fun classes outside of chem. It was such a nice break from the daily grind and really got me more motivated to do my classwork because I felt refreshed and ready to learn.
6) Talk to grad/law/med/whatever students
Honestly for me, my grad students ended up being my biggest resource. They had recently been through college and they knew first hand all the problems and situations that I was going through. I was super fortunate that my grad students were more than willing to answer any and every question I had, and that they even helped me apply to graduate school by reading through and editing my personal statement.
7) Talk to... professors :O
Shocker! I know. Honestly people get so caught up in their grades that they forget that professors are real people too. The best piece of advice I ever got was that, professors seem busy but the only thing they love working on more than their own problems is their students problems. And for the most part that's so true. My professors have been a great resource to go to about literally everything. I'll admit it's hard to set up that initial connection but, once it's set, having your professors be proud of you is literally the greatest feeling in the world. Especially when you're struggling and they magically know the answers to all of your problems. Cause remember, just like grad students, they've been through all of this and they know how hard college can be. They legitimately care about you and your well-being.
8) Stop caring what other people think
A huge part of why I stopped blogging so frequently was because I felt like a nuisance or that I was being unprofessional. But I realized that people are always going to dislike you no matter what you do. So don't let them stop you from enjoying the things you love. If you try to appease all the haters you're just gonna do a lot of work for literally no reason.
And that's about it. Sure I could go on for pages and pages but I'm a real adult now so I have to go do boring things like cooking dinner so I don't starve and die
I won't make promises but I'll try to be better about updating!