As the alarm buzzes so begins the debate. The debate whether or not getting up and getting ready for class is really worth it. As you weigh your options you debate over the following: (a) You can skip class and get the notes from someone else or (b) go because your class grade depends on it. While the responsible choice is to go to class, not everyone is responsible.

For many recent college graduates, it appears that nothing has changed. You still want to sleep in and you don’t want to get up yet. The big difference is that if you decide to sleep in and ‘skip’ class you can’t just make up what you missed by getting the notes from a fellow classmate. Instead you are missing out on your future. While it is easy for many of us to just hit the snooze button, and sleep for what seems like an amazing 5 minutes, too often do recent college graduates carry over this mentality into life after college.

It what can be described as a sort of college hangover, what many fail to realize is that time waits for no one, and the sooner you can ‘sober’ up, the better. Reminiscing about all the good times you had during college is great, but it is even more important to look toward the future.

The “Real World”

College teaches you how to derive answers from complicated formulas, how to write a research paper, and how to cram before a test. The problem is, that the ‘real world’ is so different from life during college that it’s almost like a cultural shock when someone graduates from college. One of the biggest changes that recent college graduates face is having to make ‘grown-up’ decisions. From deciding what type of health insurance you need to figuring out the difference between a 401K and a Roth IRA, these sort of decisions are just the start. While many of us would love to have a ‘trial period’ similar to a membership at a club, their is no such thing.

In order to be prepared for what’s ahead it is important to start early. By early, I mean looking for a job when you are still in school. Once you leave school, things become twice as hard. You don’t have counselors and career centers to help you, you only have yourself. If you still don’t know what you want to do by the time you leave school that doesn’t mean you should take a vacation. There will be plenty of time for that later. Instead, find an internship or take extra classes that may interest you. Just because you don’t have a job doesn’t mean you can’t build toward your future.

Want Versus Need

You want a job that pays you $70,000 a year + benefits, but you need experience. You want to start off as a manager, but you need management skills. These sorts of conflicts are the kinds that keep recent college graduates in a ‘hangover.’ Being realistic is just as important as being optimistic. Especially in the tough economic times that we are in, being able to understand your wants versus your needs is important. College graduates need to understand that although they may have the skills, the jobs may just not be out there. With students graduating faster than new job openings, it’s simple math. With that said, it is to a graduates advantage to play the numbers game as well and apply to as many jobs as possible.

The person that wants to make 6 figures a year needs to realize that his needs may be different. Waiting around for that 6 figure job to come his way may cause him to miss out on other opportunities. Not only will he be missing out, but that 6 figure job may never even happen.

3 Keys To “Sobriety”

1. Plan Ahead

The best way to prevent the college “hangover” is to try and prevent it all together. By planning ahead and having an idea of what you want to do once you graduate is the best approach. Begin by attending career fairs and trying to find some internships for over the summer.

2. Understand The Value Of Time

There are 168 hours in a week. If you sleep for 6 hours a day that still leaves you 126 hours. Being able to manage your time and maximize the amount of work you do, will help to keep you focused and productive.

3. Understand Your Situation

After all the graduation parties are over and the last bits of confetti are picked up off the floor this is where you need to be able to grasp the whole situation.  Out of the three this could be the most important because even though you follow 1 and 2, if you don’t understand why you are doing it and what your situation is, you are essentially just going through the motions without any meaning to it.

Always remember,

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. — Ferris Bueller

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Photo by Big Garlic Bullet

When you go to fill your prescriptions one of the first decisions you have to make is whether to go for the name brand or generic drug. While most may say that their is a huge difference, if you ask a doctor if their is, they will tell you their really isn’t. Just like with medicine, everyday brings new choices, and among those choices is whether to choose the name brand, or the run of the mill generics.

Currently, we are recruiting talent college students to be part of our Entrepreneurship Internship Program. For our internship program we listed at the top 50 schools across the nation. After interviewing many students who are interested in the program, I began to think how big of a role a college’s name has to do with getting a job. On a resume, one of the first things that you list is where you went to school. For my own personal opinion, if someone wrote down on their resume that they went to the best school in the nation, I would be impressed. But the question I asked myself was why? While I didn’t want to create a bias against other applicants, it is hard to not to have some expectations of the applicant. Still, the interview proved to me that a college’s name can only get you so far.

The applicant that I interviewed was anything but stellar and made me realize that ‘brand names’ are just a name. The applicant was incoherent during the interview and was obviously unprepared. No matter what your resume says, your resume cannot speak words nor can it tell others why you should get the position. After having more interviews that resulted in the same way I began to think if we were targeting the right colleges. As a startup company you face many big decisions, one of which is finding the right personnel to join your company. If you think of your company as a boat, then your employees are the propeller that moves you.

Choosing a college to go to is perhaps one of the biggest decisions you will make in your life. Not only does it shape your future but for four years of your life you discover who ‘you’ are. For many of us, choosing between the big name school and the small lesser known school is a complicated and stressful decision. A simple way to look at it is this situation:

You have two cars: One is a Ferrari but ugly and has few things you like, and one is a no-name brand but has every feature that you want. Making the decision is hard because their are little things about each you want. You want the big name, but you also want it to have the things you want. In an ideal situation you can get both, but things rarely turn out that way. I once learned in school that “for every gain, there is a loss.” In the same sense, choosing one college over another can have that kind of impact.

In the corporate world, students that graduate from the big name, easily recognizable schools are treated differently than others that come from a lesser known school. By treated differently, I mean are given more opportunities for jobs.

Why does that happen?

Michael Jordan is considered to be one of the greatest basketball players who ever lived. As a result of this, his children will always be expected to be naturally gifted and good at sports. Using the same comparison, students that graduate from big name schools carry on that ‘legacy.’ When people hear that you graduated from “so and so” school, they will immediately begin to associate you with what the school was known for or what they have heard about it. The corporate world is much the same. Send them a resume from a top school in the nation and you have already impressed them. Send them a resume from a small school and the rest of your resume will have to be stunning and impressive.

Today, I spoke with my good friend and CMO, Jun Loayza, about the impact a college’s name has. I remember when Jun first interviewed me for Future Delivery, I was super excited to talk with him. I had practiced and prepared for our interview hoping to impress and be memorable. The one fear that I will confess is that I was afraid that my resume would not be as outstanding as other applicants. While I graduated from one of the Top 40 public universities in the nation, my school was relatively unknown because of its location. Speaking with Jun about the impact of a colleges name, Jun said that

“in a corporate world, your school’s name has a big impact. Big companies recruit from the big schools. For an entrepreneur, not as much.”

So what kind of impact is it? Well for starters it is getting your foot through the door. That is one of the hardest parts. From their it is your ‘job’ to sell yourself.

Whether you come from a big name school, or a lesser known school, as I mentioned before: your resume and college can’t interview for you. If you are able to get an interview with a company don’t rely on your resume or the college you went to. Remember, they want to interview you, not the school.

One of the most common complaints that people have is that they just can’t find a job. Largely, if not entirely due to the economy, unemployment is at an all-time high and more and more individuals are finding themselves at home. Many of my friends have told me that they have applied to several jobs only to never hear back from them. So what is the problem here? When people say that they can’t get a job, the first thing I ask them is “where have you looked for a job?”

Saying that you can’t find a job should mean that you have tried every possible job opening available and still can’t get an offer. What most people mean when they say is that they can’t get a job is that they can’t get a job they feel they are best qualified for. Take for example the recent college graduate. After 4 years of hard work, they would expect to be rewarded with a full time job that somehow justifies their hours of studying and hard work. In reality, because of the economy many recent college graduates are finding themselves unemployed and back at home.

Graduating college, you come away with some expectation of what life post-college would be like. You expect to have a job that you have prepared for all during college and expect to have some sort of ‘plan.’ With the economy the way is though, you should expect nothing and should be ready to change your ‘plans’ at any moment. The point I am trying to make is that Yes, you should apply to all those jobs that you feel you should get but that you should also be flexible in the jobs you apply for. Just because you were an accounting student in college doesn’t mean you can’t apply for jobs you are overqualified for or out of your focus.

With the way the economy is now, you should be jumping at every opportunity you have. It’s not that people can’t find a job, but rather they don’t want to take jobs that have the ‘I can do better’ tag. The other day I heard the story about Ken Karpman who made $750,000.00 a year as a CEO. After a failed business venture Ken tried to find a job but spent 2 years unemployed. Due to a struggling economy and corporations struggling to stay alive, Ken took his UCLA MBA to the local pizza restaurant to ask for a job. From $750,000.00 a year to $7.29 an hour, Ken did what most people should do right now. Don’t wait and see if the economy will get better, take action now. Ken waited 2 years hoping to find a job that would fit his resume. As a result, his family now has over $100,000 in credit card debt and his home is now in foreclosure.

Taking a job you feel you are overqualified for or shouldn’t be doing doesn’t mean that you will be doing that the rest of your life. Having a job right now is as important as it has ever been. A big reason why you see so many college students unemployed right now has a lot to do with pride. In the case of Ken Karpman, who would have ever thought that a former CEO would now be delivering you pizza? We drive certain cars, wear certain clothes, and take certain jobs because we want to live a particular way and to some degree show off a certain lifestyle. With a poor economy, to plan for the future, you need to first think about the present.

Finally, it is important to remember that just because the economy is down, doesn’t mean that their isn’t an opportunity to build for the future. If you still don’t ‘think’ you can get a job, going back to school and furthuring your education is a great option. There are many great opportunities out their for you and it is your job to go out their and take full advantage of them. Remember that every accomplishments starts with the decision to try. Don’t miss out.

Recently, a friend of mine who is a senior in college told me of the situation they are in. With just a couple months remaining before they graduate, they are scrambling to find a job. After spending months sending out resumes and going to career fairs, they have gotten very few interviews and no job offers. My friend, like so many others who are soon to graduate are worried that after 4 years of sleepless nights studying and hours thinking if they were in the right major, that it may all have been for nothing. While it is an exaggeration to say that it has been for nothing, to some that is what it feels like. The best way to describe this could be through an analogy. Imagine you are training to be a pilot. After four years of training and hard work, imagine now that airplanes have become obsolete. Would it not feel like you had spent all that time for nothing? This is the same kind of feeling that some of my friends have expressed.

For those of you that are in the situation where you are graduating soon and are unable to find a job, the question that you must think about now is “What will I do next?” My advice is to find an internship. Speaking to a friend of mine who works at a career center, they told me that one of the common reasons that students don’t apply for internships is that they assume that internship’s are a waste of time and that it is just ‘grunt’ work with no pay. While this may be true in some situations, it is not entirely correct.

The main difference between internship positions and full-time/part-time job positions is that internship programs generally don’t pay their participants. Instead, interns are usually offered school credit. In some situations, interns actually get paid for their work. Now that I said that, I must recommend that to anyone who is looking for a job just to pay the bills and to strictly make money, not to take an internship.

Internship programs are offered as a learning experience for individuals who are interested in learning more about a career path they are interested in. This is one of the best parts of an internship. Unlike jobs where you are expected to have a somewhat firm understanding of the work, internship programs teach you the in’s and outs of the job. If you are a college student, internships are a great opportunity because of the flexibility that many companies offer. Companies know that most interns are balancing work and school, so they always want to make sure that school comes first. When you have a job, they worry only about your performance in the work place, not how you did on your chemistry test.

For college students, one of the biggest issues when applying for a job is the lack of experience that they have. There are two ways to address this. The first is to identify this early on while you are in college. As a freshman all the way through your junior year of college you should be attacking every internship opportunity that comes your way so that you develop the skills and experience for when you are going for that full time job offer. If you are already a senior in college and realize that you don’t have the experience then the best strategy that you can do is to jump into an internship right now. With the economy not helping the job hunt, college graduates with no experience are facing an uphill battle. With companies looking to save money, many are more than willing to give students a chance to earn some experience in exchange for course credit. In some situations, some companies don’t even require students to get course credit for their internship.

The biggest advantage I think that students can get from doing an internship is getting their foot in the door with an organization they are interested in getting a full time job offer with. For interns that are dedicated and work hard, they are sometimes rewarded with a full time job offer at the end of the program. I myself was able to get a full time offer from Future Delivery upon completion of their internship program and am currently working with them to promote and build fun and creative tools for students and young professionals.

For any student or young professional that is looking to get into an internship program here are some tips and advice that I learned during my internship program:

• Email Etiquette
  
  
  
  • One of the key things that students forget when writing to recruiters and employers is that they are not your friend. Using instant messaging lingo like “lol” and “thx” are not acceptable. Remember that everything from how you address others to how you structure your emails reflects what kind of applicant you are.




• Cater Your Resume
  
  
  
  • A common mistake that most students make when applying to an internship is that they send the same resume that they would send to a full-time job position. While this is okay, it is helpful to cater a resume to the learning aspect of an internship and also to list relevant experience or coursework that relates to the internship.




• Time Management
  
  
  
  • As mentioned earlier, internship programs are very flexible and understand that you are still in school. Still, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have to go to meetings because you would rather go to a party. Internship programs want to choose candidates that want to learn and be there, not students that want just want to get credit for it. Remember that just like a full-time job, companies will cut you from their internship program at anytime.




• How To Find An Internship Position
  
  
  
  • Many schools have their own job listing database that employers will list their internship programs on. I highly suggest that you start your job search here. This is the main hub that companies will list their programs on because students are their main target for internship programs. Another tip I would suggest is that even though a company doesn’t have an internship position posted online, it never hurts to call their human resources and ask them if they have an opportunities for students. It is hard to turn down a students desire to learn.

Using an analogy one more time, an internship program can be thought of as training wheels for your career. Given the option of jumping on a bicycle with no prior training or the option of jumping on a bicycle with training wheels, which would you choose? I’d take training wheels any day.

Graduating from college I can say that I am smarter and wiser than when I first arrived. While I say that I am smarter and wiser, I wouldn’t say that college fully prepared me for the ‘real world’. Instead college taught me about international trade theory and how to write a paper in proper MLA form. What college didn’t teach me, I had to learn on my own. From learning how to write and prepare a resume, to interviewing, I like so many others felt that college did little to prepare me for the ‘real world.’

Talking to others that recently graduated and are currently looking for a job, lack of confidence in themselves is the biggest weakness that many expressed to me. Whether it’s not being qualified enough for a job or not knowing the direction they are headed, many believe that college’s should have spent more time in helping students prepare for post-graduation plans. Perhaps it is only the university I attended, but I feel that while students had an idea of what career path they wanted to go down it was still vague and unclear.

Consider this quote by the famous Albert Einstein:

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”

I believe that Einstein’s quote reflects the situation that many of those graduating from college will realize in the future. What you learn after college is worth more than what you learn during it. While I am by no means saying that college hasn’t given me tools to succeed in life, but rather I am saying that college needs to do a better job of giving students realistic preparation. Most students will never use econometrics or advanced invertebrate anatomy, but what most students will remember are time management, organizational behavior, how to write a resume and email etiquette. Unfortunately, the things I just listed are all things that aren’t offered through college courses except through career centers. While the career center is a good place to go for resources, ask students if they have been to their career center and most will tell you no or even ask where it is. This of course is subject to scrutiny as no two career centers are alike. Problems such as students not being unable to go to the career center during there often selective hour should not be reason for a student being prepared for the future. If college courses offered classes that were post-graduation focused such as personal finance and personal development courses with no grade and would have no effect on one’s units then I believe that it would be beneficial and many students would opt for it.

Confidence as I mentioned earlier is an element that some college students wish they had more of. Whether its offering classes that are geared toward practical preparation such as resume help or helping students map out post-grad plans, colleges should strive to not only give us the knowledge of numbers and theorems but also to be able to enter the workforce or any endeavor and feel like we are prepared and ready for anything.

The first project that I worked on at Future Delivery was FD Career. FD Career’s motto was “Career Development Made Fun.” Through exercises/quests and networking opportunities, students and young professionals are able to make themselves more well rounded and thus be better prepared. One of the key elements to being productive at work is believing in your product which in this case was FD Career. As a freshman in college I would have loved to have a website like FD Career around to help prepare me for career paths and help me understand the importance of networking and one’s personal brand.

To students and anyone who is looking for a job or even just looking for a direction and help, I leave you with a few words of inspiration from a doctor:

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.
~Dr. Seuss

In the next month, I will be attempting to spend 24 hours at a 24 hour fitness. I will eat, sleep, and exercise at 24 hour fitness. It may seem a little crazy (maybe more than a little), but it was an idea that I came up with when talking with my friend. As a college student I paid $700 a month including furnishings and utilities for housing. I got my own room, my own bathroom, and shared a living space with 3 crazy other people. Compared to what other college students were paying at other colleges, I consider myself lucky. For example, my girlfriend paid $800 and shared a room. This didn’t include utilities or furnishings.

So the question that my friend and I talked about was how to live cheap. Now the word cheap may be associated with ‘poor quality,’ but to a college student it means ‘bargain’ and ‘good deal.’ The idea that I came up with was why not live at 24 Hour Fitness.

For $20 a month, you have 24 hour access to their facilities. Assuming that their are 30 days in a month that means you are paying an average of $.66 a month! That is a deal. I know what you are thinking by now, “Who in their right mind would do this?” The answer to that would be a college student. The perception that anything can happen in college is pretty accurate and an idea like this is right up a college students alley. Now, what I am proposing is not to actually live, study, and sleep at 24 hour fitness permanently, but to stay their for 24 hours for fun and jokes.

For 24 hours, my friend and I will be going to a yet to be determined 24 Hour Fitness Center and attempting to ‘live’ their for 24 hours straight. We will each be bringing a small gym backpack. In it will be a small container of rice (in case we starve), $10.00, gloves (for when we pump iron), and duct tape (I’ve heard you can use it for anything). Aside from the items listed, we will also be bringing a basketball, toothbrush and toothpaste, a sweater, and 1 paper cup each.

Also, I plan on video recording the whole 24 hours (or at least most of it) so I will be bringing additional disks to record as well as batteries.

The next question that you may be wondering is, “What will you eat? Where will you sleep? How will you shower..” The answer is simple. For every daily activity that we would normally do, we can do it at 24 Hour Fitness also.

Here are a couple questions that some of my friends already asked me:

1. Where will you sleep? –Yoga mats in the exercise rooms (gonna pretend we’re meditating…for a long time)

2. Shower? –Lucky for us, 24 Hour Fitness has showers for members to use. I will not be recording this for obvious reasons.

3. Food? –Simple. All the PowerBar’s we can eat for $10. Water is free (if not, we might die of dehydration.)

4. Boredom? –No way to solve this. It is bound to happen. Hopefully later than sooner.

5. Getting kicked out of 24 Hour Fitness? — As far as I know their is no rule against staying at the gym as long as you are a member and you aren’t breaking any of their rules.

6. Are you gonna bring your cellphone? — Nope. If I need to contact someone I’m gonna do it the old fashioned way: pay phone.

Hopefully at the end of this ‘adventure’ I will be able to look back on it and have a few laughs. Otherwise, I expect to never set foot in a gym for many months after it and have a greater appreciation for my bed.

Stay tuned for 24 hours at 24 Hour Fitness review.

Growing up, if you were to ask me who my heroes were I would have probably responded by saying Batman or Superman. Today it is a totally different response. Today I would respond with my parents. So what has changed? The better question should be what hasn’t. Nothing has really changed, rather I have a better understanding of life.

As a young child you grow up with an un-clear idea of fear. As a child, being scared of the dark and eating vegetables could be comparable to now being afraid of a major economic collapse or sky rocketing gas prices. Looking back, their was a period of time in my life where I would say that I fell victim to the ‘Superman Complex.’

What is the Superman Complex

The ‘Superman Complex’ is appropriately named after the classic DC comic hero Superman himself. Superman seemed to be the “unbeatable” superhero. Nothing seemed to impossible for him, nothing seemed to stop him. Still, Superman was not invincible. His weakness was kryptonite. Similar to the story of Superman, many of us in society fall victim to this mind set which is feeling that we are able to do anything without failure or consequences. Individuals that have the Superman Complex also feel the need to save others while feeling ‘invincible.’ Some of us go our whole life living with the mind set of the Superman Complex. While it is not necessarily a bad thing, I wouldn’t say it is a good thing.

One of the classic examples of the Superman Complex can be seen in teens around the age 15-19. Around this time, teens begin to have fewer rules and more trust from their parents. After years of telling their children what is right and what is wrong, parents feel that their children will make the right decision. Unfortunately this is not always true. As teens begin to explore their new found freedom, most go out into the world with no real understanding of what ‘fear’ is. Teens will drive at high speeds only thinking of how fast they can go and how to weave in and out of traffic without slowing down. During this age, teens also will have to face the hard decision of how to deal with drugs and alcohol. It is not an easy age by any means.

Still, the thought process that goes into making these decisions are what separates those with the Superman complex and those who don’t. The teen that drives at high speeds and disregards the safety of others has the mindset that they are ‘invincible.’ Most people I have talked to that have been in major car accidents have told me that after they had the accident they won’t drive fast and are in some ways scared too because they know what can happen. Without this ‘fear,’ teens that decide to drive the way they do will always have the feeling that they are immune to the consequences or that ‘it won’t happen to them.’ In a way, the Superman Complex can be thought of as ‘living life without fear or realization of consequence.’ As mentioned, the Superman Complex can apply to anyone.

The Superman Complex revolves around the idea of being fearless, but in reality it is important to not live in fear, but learn from it. As Louisa May Alcott once said:

“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship”

Let us not be afraid of living life, but learn how to live it.

As I was flipping through various news articles on the web, I came across an interesting article written by Adam Nichols of the New York Post. The article, entitled “Better Sign of Times“, was about a banker who was recently put out of a job due to the economic situation. For many of us,  ‘standard protocol’ when looking for job involves:

1. Looking for job openings

2. Submitting our resume

3. Waiting for an employer to ask us to interview with them

Joshua Persky, the un-employed banker from the article, thought of a different way to look for a job. Using his creativity, Joshua Persky used a sandwich board sign saying he was looking for a job and wore it around Park Avenue. Not only did Persky attract plenty of attention from New Yorker’s, but Persky also attracted many job offers. So popular was Persky’s approach to finding a job that he created a blog where he documented his experiences.

Eventually, Persky got a full time offer from Manhattan firm Weiser LLP. When looking back at his experience Persky states in the article that

“Obviously, I had vigorous interviews, but I think it was [the blog] which sealed the deal,”

A blog.

Not his resume, not his interview, and not his sandwich board, but his blog. That is what sealed the deal.

As college students and young professionals prepare to apply for jobs, one advice that I would like to give is this. Company’s that are looking for someone to fill the position that they have an opening for get hundreds and hundreds of applications. Just like when you apply to get into a college, you have to write a personal essay, in essence, a personal blog can serve just the same purpose. A personal blog gives the interviewer a chance to look at many different aspects of you that a resume would never be able to show. From your writing style and use of logic, to what you are interested in and motivated at; your blog is an extension of yourself and everyone should have one.

It is not hard to find two applicants that have great GPA and great community involvement and drive, but what is the key determinant in deciding who gets the position is who is able to leave that lasting impression. In the case of the sandwich board banker, Persky was able to differentiate himself from the rest of the field by not only having a creative way of ‘applying’ for a job, but by having a personal blog that tells ‘his story’ and builds his personal brand.

Whether you write about fashion, music, what your favorite cartoon is, or even what you think the government should do with the economy, always remember that a personal blog is a tool that tells people who you are, where you’ve been and most importantly, where you want to go.

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Article: Better Sign of Times, Adam Nichols

After many hours of browsing on youtube, I found this cool video that was made by Professor Wesch at Kansas State. The video is in summary, Web 2.0 in under 5 minutes. Didn’t think it was possible to explain it all, but he did a pretty good job doing it.

Got any other great video recommendations? Let me know.

It took four years of sleepless nights, countless energy drinks, ridiculous pranks, ‘psychological warfare’ with the girlfriend, and hours of studying for me to realize how much my college had become my second home. Speaking to many of my friends who have graduated, they tell me how much they miss school and how they wish they could go back. Sometimes I think, “really?” Were these not the same people who the first day of school said they wanted to go back home. Now I hear how they want to get away from there “real” home.

For some of us, life after college means moving back home and going back to a house of rules and structure. No longer are you able to stay up as late as you want blasting your music. And no longer is leaving your dishes in the sink for weeks on end an option (yes, it happens).

I have been blessed to have been able to attend a UC school and have been able to experience the quality education that they offer. The UC system is unique in that it gives prospective college students in California a chance to go to a four year university and receive a top tier education without having to go to far. From UCLA to UC Berkeley, they have campuses all over the state for all types of students. If you are considering attending a UC, I would strongly suggest visiting the campuses to make sure you know which one would suit you best, because you have to remember, it will be your ‘second home.’

With my ‘second home’s’ lease ending soon, I wish to offer some advice to soon to be graduates as well as those who are still in college.

1. Enjoy it

Plain and simple. As the saying goes, “You only live once.” Applying that concept, you will only be an undergraduate once in your life. Whether it’s re-inventing your image or building life long relationships, enjoy this time of your life.

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Say “Hi”

All of us have seen the freshmen who go up to other classmates and introduce themselves and try to be sociable. Some people laugh at them and some find them awkward. What other people think in the end is irrelevant. Unless you plan to work with them for the next 10 years of your life, they can be one of two things in your life: Significant or Nothing. Why let fear of what other people think stop you from meeting someone significant or meaningful?

3. Relationships and Balance

Everyone hears about the one night stands that happens in college. While this does occur, finding someone that means something more to you than just a physical attraction is a part of the college life many college students find. The key to this is to find a ‘happy medium’ where you are able to balance both your love life and school work. Remember, no one wants to date a bum.

4. Be Active

For most of us, college will mean being in the best physical shape of our life. From the weight rooms, tennis courts, a numerous treadmills, it is hard to say you can’t find a place to be active. Go out there and be active, because when your are out of college, staying in shape and finding ways to be active is harder and might even cost your wallet more.

5. Plan Ahead

College teaches us that time management is important. It is also important to look at the big picture and plan ahead. Use all the available resources to make sure that you are not only prepared for your classes, but life after college.

It may be too late to do everything I’ve wanted to do while at college, but it is not too late for others. Hopefully someone will read this and go out and say “hi” to someone or find someone meaningful in there life. If not, I can say that I have found someone meaningful in my life and that I no longer laugh or question when people introduce themselves to strangers because I know that this is college. Anyone can be anything.