Goodbye, So Long, Fare Thee Well

Quick other note on asking questions. Don't be afraid of your teachers... some random teachers are cranky gits that won't want to give you the time of day, but almost all teachers will want to help. I can't think of anyone in my department that is really hateful... a few oddballs, but they're all basically nice people.

I honestly don't know what it is that holds people back from asking questions... I don't THINK I'm "scary" or anything, and I am up front about saying I am willing to ask questions. It's rather frustrating as a teacher... as I said, I've had a lot of students ask questions weeks after they should have, and they could have saved a lot of headaches on their part (and mine) if they had asked sooner. Still, I know from my student days that sometimes I'd be nervous about talking to teachers, so maybe it's just a general feeling everyone has. No matter what it is, it is in any learner's best interest to get the most help they can from their teachers, etc. Go forth and explore! Ask questions!

Advice for the college bound (from my own experience and life)

1. College is not high school. In high school, I'm sure, you were one of the smart kids. One of those that would easily complete assignments and not have to study too hard to get good grades. Now you are in college and think "oh this will be a snap!", well Bubba, take a good look around. See all those bright faced young folks? They also were the smart kids. You will have to work hard to make decent grades, you won't be able to skirt by, and you can't afford to skip classes.

2. Even if you don't have employment, in college you have a job. Your job is to make grades. Treat it like one. Go to every class, find out as much as you can about the classes you take and apply yourself as fully as you can to that. The class might just be one hour long a day, but you need to treat it as a JOB. Average about 2-4 hours of outside study per hour of classwork MINIMUM. You are paying them to educate you Do Not shortchange yourself by not letting them.

3. Complete assignments. Forgeting homework was fine once in a while in high school. It is unforgivable in college. If you have been givin a task, you need to complete it. If you are falling behind, talk to your professors. They don't want to see you fail, but they don't want to help someone that they don't know.

4. The front row. SIT IN THE FRONT ROW. You'll be seen by the prof. Answer questions, ask questions, participate. Show an eagerness to learn. If it feels like you are brown-nosing, GOOD, your not there to make friends, you are there to LEARN.

5. Write down why you are there, put it on your desk where you can see it. LOOK AT IT DAILY. Are you there to get drunk every night? Are you there to catch interesting diseases? Or are you there to be a Freaking Rocket Scientist? Daily reminders will keep you on track.

6. You don't have as much free time as you think you do.

7. Avoid hookers with walkie talkies.

8. Smoking is a wonderful way to relax, but it hurts to caugh up lung tissue.

and

9. If givin the choice between a morning class or an afternoon class, always go for the afternoon class. You'll have more opportunitys to eat a healthy breakfast and get your brain working, rather then running to an 8:00 class after waking up at 7:45.

Well AC, if for nothing else, I'm glad I resubscribed so that I could say 'Goodbye' to you while you were still here - even though I nearly missed the time window there.

Not many people know this (for good reason) but I have a young disabled friend that plays this game. He's played for about 3 1/2 years now and it's one of the few joys left in his life. He has a disease that eats away at his nervous system, and he's already lost the use of his legs and partial use of one arm. His eyesight comes and goes, kind of blurring and fading in and out. He has always had a rather hefty speech impediment, as well.

What does that have to do with you, AC? You made him feel welcome when other players didn't. He told me a while back that he was on a team that was making fun of him for 'spacing out' several times when in reality he simply could not see. You were on the team, and told the other people to lay off, he was doing just fine. You then sent him a private message telling him that he was doing okay, and asking if he was okay. It meant the world to him, and I seriously doubt he'd still be playing online games now if it hadn't been for the kindness shown to him by yourself and a handful of other players.

So I wish you the best in everything, Angry Citizen. As for advice on college life, I can give you the advice of a younger brother who had to carry TVs, minifridges, microwaves, futons, desks, and other miscellanea up 6 flights of stairs several times a year for two older sisters: Pack what you need, pack some of what you want, but don't pack distractions. And for heaven's sake, don't make your little bro carry all that junk.

well ac, almost all of the college advice that i could contribute has already been given, I will wish you luck on this career path, and second that it is best to minimize distractions, even the most unappealing distraction can be employed when you really dont want to write that paper(i can recall a paper on adolescent cognitive development that was procrastinated for unlocking character costumes for dead or alive ) so good on that. hopefully on breaks you may have the cash to pop in and have a look around. we will have to decide on something to argue about for old times sake. But my prayers are with you, you have what you need and you seem to have the determination to make a disciplined attempt at it, and really discipline was the factor that i saw time and again separate the successful students from the unsuccessful. so, i feel that if you keep that up, then you will figure the rest out.

And yes, getting a credit card is good, but for the love of all thats holy, do not spend more than you can pay off, the rates on those cards are often pretty nasty, so buy with them, but pay them off before they accumulate any interest.

and the only advice i can give is, if you see the cute red-headed girl in the striped sweater in the class next to yours and you chat and find out that you share a lot of interests, dont be a goofball like me and never try to ask her out, she winds up marrying a really boring bald guy and having boring looking kids, you know you could have done better

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

A_C

You want some college life advice? OK:

Schedule as much study time as you can in the library. References are all going to be there on the computers and you can print your papers easily. The quiet atmosphere helped me as well.

Stay away from the dorm or greek housing as much as possible. The music is distracting. People can be irritating as all get-out. Someone will try to cause trouble, guaranteed. Your friends will want you to do something unproductive. Things can get tough if you go to a party school like I did. The weekend started on Thursdays and ended on Tuesdays. Try and avoid it as much as humanly possible, but still have yourself ONE night of RnR

Don't do what I did; Start out with a GPA of 0.00 at one school and fight back to graduate *** Laude from another. Try the second route first

Kevin