Dear Freshman, Don't Fall In Love with a Senior.

If you are a Freshmen like me, never fall in love with a Senior student.

You can love a fellow Freshmen, explore College for the first time together. Linger on each other's company more often for you have all the time you still have, given that you are just starting a new chapter of your lives. Live the college life as if there's no tomorrow.

You can love a Sophomore Student, let him/her guide you through your first year in College. You can put your trust in him for he has already gone through that one year you are currently just in.

You can love a Junior Student, he'll surely devote more time for you, for he knows that he has this year as his second to the last. Look for the rebellious side of this Junior student and be sure to cherish every moment.

But never, ever fall in love with a Senior Student.

Consider the gap in age when you love a senior student. People will say a lot of things about you - and you will get hurt with what they are going to say, a lot of bad things to say the least. Because of the huge gap, misunderstandings might occur more often between the two of you.

A senior college student will have little or less time for the two of you, for he'll be worrying for his future career as he is going to graduate soon, of course. He'll be more concentrated on the pressures that the academic scene require such as Theses and Title Defenses and Project Proposals and whole lot of other Senior-y stuff. Besides, would you want to just get in the way of his dreams of graduating and landing a possibly good job?

A Freshmen-Senior relationship might never get that far. What happens to the young one when the older one graduates and leaves the campus after graduation? Surely, they'll not be able to continue what they have when one continues to study as a sophie and the other one starts to work.

Finally, loving a senior student is too demanding for both sides - the Senior trying to stoop down to the level of a not yet mature mind while the Freshman trying to reach out to the yet unknown lessons of life and love. A relationship like this will get you all consumed up - your time, your resources, your efforts and so much more. So a piece of advice young Freshman, simply avoid the risks that comes along with loving a Senior student.

To fall in love with a Senior College Student is only for the always understanding, ever patient and highly idealistic Freshman.

To fall in love with a senior demands that you be always understanding. People will always have something to say anyway so just better let them be, but don't let them affect your relationship with the Senior you love. Trust him with all your heart for he knows what to do and how to act in certain situations - he'd been there for the past three years already.

To love a senior also requires long-term patience. Yes, he'll be ever busy with his never-ending requirements and academic loads, but it would be impossible that you not find time for each other within the 24 hours given in a day or 7 days given in a week. Patience is the key for this kind of relationship to last. Support each other in any way you can to finish the tasks on time so that you'll have more quality time for each other without compromising your studies. 

And in my own honest opinion, what a worried senior needs is a highly idealistic Freshman. Yes, nothing lasts forever, a relationship with a Senior won't last. Perhaps it may not ever reach that point. It might not be the most idealistic relationship, but to fall in love with a senior is the greatest feeling ever. To fall in love with such diverse and complex mind that had gone through and about to leave College Life already. You will learn a lot about falling in love with a senior, and I mean A LOT. Yeah sure, choosing to love a fellow Freshman, a Sophomore or a Junior student may be a less arduous task, but to love a Senior beyond all the difficulties, trials and challenges is the greatest gift of love that a Freshman would experience.

"So yes, Fall In Love with a Senior, but do so with all your heart and youthfulness as a Freshman."

[Please consider the fact that this was written in the middle of the night, whereas the author was completely sleepless, restless and hungry. You may take this as nothing more than a personal rant of a troubled young mind. You are entitled to criticize this work of mine, but I also may not bother to care about the criticism for I am highly lazy. Nonetheless, thank you for your time and effort reading.]

I Wish I Had Read This Before College

I  have randomly stumbled upon this on my Tumblr Dashboard and I believe this deserves a spotlight this humble blog of mine. I do not intellectually own the item below. Nonetheless, it's a very good read, especially now that I'm about to enter college as a Freshmen (again!) A MUST READ FOR INCOMING COLLEGE FRESHIES!

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Dear Class of 2011,

As you begin your college experience, I thought I’d leave you with the things that, in retrospect, I think are important as you navigate the next four years. I hope that some of them are helpful.

Here goes…

1. Your friends will change a lot over the next four years. Let them.
2. Call someone you love back home a few times a week, even if just for a few minutes.
3. In college more than ever before, songs will attach themselves to memories. Every month or two, make a mix cd, mp3 folder, whatever - just make sure you keep copies of these songs. Ten years out, they’ll be as effective as a journal in taking you back to your favorite moments.
4. Take naps in the middle of the afternoon with reckless abandon.
5. Adjust your schedule around when you are most productive and creative. If you’re nocturnal and do your best work late at night, embrace that. It may be the only time in your life when you can.
6. If you write your best papers the night before they are due, don’t let people tell you that you “should be more organized” or that you “should plan better.” Different things work for different people. Personally, I worked best under pressure - so I always procrastinated… and always kicked ass (which annoyed my friends to no end). ;-) Use the freedom that comes with not having grades first semester to experiment and see what works best for you.
7. At least a few times in your college career, do something fun and irresponsible when you should be studying. The night before my freshman year psych final, my roommate somehow scored front row seats to the Indigo Girls at a venue 2 hours away. I didn’t do so well on the final, but I haven’t thought about psych since 1993. I’ve thought about the experience of going to that show (with the guy who is now my son’s godfather) at least once a month ever since.
8. Become friends with your favorite professors. Recognize that they can learn from you too - in fact, that’s part of the reason they chose to be professors.
9. Carve out an hour every single day to be alone. (Sleeping doesn’t count.)
10. Go on dates. Don’t feel like every date has to turn into a relationship.
11. Don’t date someone your roommate has been in a relationship with.
12. When your friends’ parents visit, include them. You’ll get free food, etc., and you’ll help them to feel like they’re cool, hangin’ with the hip college kids.
13. In the first month of college, send a hand-written letter to someone who made college possible for you and describe your adventures thus far. It will mean a lot to him/her now, and it will mean a lot to you in ten years when he/she shows it to you.
14. Embrace the differences between you and your classmates. Always be asking yourself, “what can I learn from this person?” More of your education will come from this than from any classroom.
15. All-nighters are entirely overrated.
16. For those of you who have come to college in a long-distance relationship with someone from high school: despite what many will tell you, it can work. The key is to not let your relationship interfere with your college experience. If you don’t want to date anyone else, that’s totally fine! What’s not fine, however, is missing out on a lot of defining experiences because you’re on the phone with your boyfriend/girlfriend for three hours every day.
17. Working things out between friends is best done in person, not over email. (IM does not count as “in person.”) Often someone’s facial expressions will tell you more than his/her words.
18. Take risks.
19. Don’t be afraid of (or excited by) the co-ed bathrooms. The thrill is over in about 2 seconds.
20. Wednesday is the middle of the week; therefore on wednesday night the week is more than half over. You should celebrate accordingly. (It makes thursday and friday a lot more fun.)
21. Welcome failure into your lives. It’s how we grow. What matters is not that you failed, but that you recovered.
22. Take some classes that have nothing to do with your major(s), purely for the fun of it.
23. It’s important to think about the future, but it’s more important to be present in the now. You won’t get the most out of college if you think of it as a stepping stone.
24. When you’re living on a college campus with 400 things going on every second of every day, watching TV is pretty much a waste of your time and a waste of your parents’ money. If you’re going to watch, watch with friends so at least you can call it a “valuable social experience.”
25. Don’t be afraid to fall in love. When it happens, don’t take it for granted. Celebrate it, but don’t let it define your college experience.
26. Much of the time you once had for pleasure reading is going to disappear. Keep a list of the books you would have read had you had the time, so that you can start reading them when you graduate.
27. Things that seem like the end of the world really do become funny with a little time and distance. Knowing this, forget the embarassment and skip to the good part.
28. Every once in awhile, there will come an especially powerful moment when you can actually feel that an experience has changed who you are. Embrace these, even if they are painful.
29. No matter what your political or religious beliefs, be open-minded. You’re going to be challenged over the next four years in ways you can’t imagine, across all fronts. You can’t learn if you’re closed off.
30. If you need to get a job, find something that you actually enjoy. Just because it’s work doesn’t mean it has to suck.
31. Don’t always lead. It’s good to follow sometimes.
32. Take a lot of pictures. One of my major regrets in life is that I didn’t take more pictures in college. My excuse was the cost of film and processing. Digital cameras are cheap and you have plenty of hard drive space, so you have no excuse.
33. Your health and safety are more important than anything.
34. Ask for help. Often.
35. Half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at any given moment. Way more than half of you will be in the bottom half of your class at some point in the next four years. Get used to it.
36. In ten years very few of you will look as good as you do right now, so secretly revel in how hot you are before it’s too late.
37. In the long run, where you go to college doesn’t matter as much as what you do with the opportunities you’re given there. The MIT name on your resume won’t mean much if that’s the only thing on your resume. As a student here, you will have access to a variety of unique opportunities that no one else will ever have - don’t waste them.
38. On the flip side, don’t try to do everything. Balance = well-being.
39. Make perspective a priority. If you’re too close to something to have good perspective, rely on your friends to help you.
40. Eat badly sometimes. It’s the last time in your life when you can do this without feeling guilty about it.
41. Make a complete ass of yourself at least once, preferably more. It builds character.
42. Wash your sheets more than once a year. Trust me on this one.
43. If you are in a relationship and none of your friends want to hang out with you and your significant other, pay attention. They usually know better than you do.
44. Don’t be afraid of the weird pizza topping combinations that your new friend from across the country loves. Some of the truly awful ones actually taste pretty good. Expand your horizons.
45. Explore the campus thoroughly. Don’t get caught.
46. Life is too short to stick with a course of study that you’re no longer excited about. Switch, even if it complicates things.
47. Tattoos are permanent. Be very certain.
48. Don’t make fun of prefrosh. That was you like 2 hours ago.
49. Enjoy every second of the next four years. It is impossible to describe how quickly they pass.

This is the only time in your lives when your only real responsibility is to learn. Try to remember how lucky you are every day.

Be yourself. Create. Inspire, and be inspired. Grow. Laugh. Learn. Love.
Welcome to some of the best years of your lives.