It's elementary, Nicodemus

Kimberly Fleek spoke to our Perspectives class, and told us about a gutter in Bangladesh. She told us how she had been seeing that same gutter everywhere she went (over 27 different countries) ever since she'd been traveling (since 1997). She described how she just kept wondering, "God, why haven't you done anything about this? Why is global poverty increasing? Why is the world so dark?" She told how simple the question returned to her was, "Kimberly, what are you doing about the gutter?"

When the sun goes down you cannot fault your house for being dark. When it's nighttime, everything is dark and we don't find this strange. Instead you ask, why has no one turned on the lights? We live in a world pervaded with darkness. We cannot be surprised when evil seems ubiquitous. Is the brokenness not to be expected? Oh, but He is making all things new. And oh, He wants to use us as His hands and feet. And so, instead we must turn the lights on.

But how do we turn those lights on? Sometimes Jesus drives me crazy. I read stories about His life and I totally jive with the disciples, who always ask Jesus the same exact questions I'm thinking. They need a to-do list, they need it spelled out for them, and I need that, too.

So when it comes to serving God and building bridges of love and crushing evil under my feet, you'd think I'd take that literally, too.

Not so much.

I was driving home from a friend's house last week when we passed the women's prison in Cranston. And I drive past it relatively frequently, but somehow I saw it differently in the twilight and was struck with a curiosity about prison ministry. Actually, not even that, I really just thought to myself, "I was in prison, and you came to me." And then I thought, "Huh, maybe I should go there."

But hold that thought for a minute.

My classmates were discussing immigrants today, and one girl remarked, "Whenever my mom drives past Hispanics hanging out in front of the Seven-Eleven looking for day jobs, she says to me, 'Bonus points.' Which I know is racist, but it's okay, because they're illegal." Judgenotjudgenotjudgenotjudgenot, I tried to breathe to myself, as I exchanged glances with my friend, who started talking about a TED blog he read about illegals. "It's hard," he said, "Because technically undocumented immigrants are indeed illegal, but they also have no path to become legal if they wanted to." And I breathed a sigh of relief to myself, that he said what I wanted to say. 

I want to be an immigration lawyer 1) because I love liberty, and I love justice, and I think it's unconscionable that the immigration system we currently have is the seat of so much controversy and disrepair, but also 2) because I love Jesus, and He has called His followers to love the alien in our land. I am convinced immovably that I need to take a part in caring for immigrants, and that my career can be the same thing as my ministry.

But this way of thinking, though it's confirmed a lot for me about the trajectory of my life, has created some cognitive dissonance. If I feel that way, what am I doing to love the immigrant population around me right now, sans law degree? And furthermore, I'm not just supposed to care for the foreigner, but also the widows and the orphans and the hungry and the sick and the oppressed and . . . the prisoners. 

On the one hand, that's a lot of caring for just one person to do. Especially one person who has trouble even giving her friends a phone call to catch up. On the other hand, the caring is not the end unto itself. Focusing on the need is the fastest way to burn-out. Instead, caring for these demographics is a way for bringing Him more glory. And I love Him! And because of that, I want to love others in His name!

The darkness of this world makes my heart hurt. It is overwhelming and almost immobilizing. It is not always easy to see how God is actively at work redeeming this world. But what if instead of asking a heart-heavy "why" I pursued a love-driven mission to share light in this dark world? It's surprisingly basic, an incredibly literal understand of what Jesus said and did, it seems too easy. All the people. Love them. Turn on the lights.

So when school finally ends in two weeks, I'll have a few extra hours to spare. (When I'm not working, studying for the LSAT, catching up on Perspectives homework, and attending to the laundry list of things I ought to give some attention to . . . I guess overcommitment is another post for another time.) If you know a good prison ministry in Rhode Island that I could get involved in for a month or two, let me know?

Doing is better than thinking

Our next door neighbor passed away today.

If you think of it, you can pray for his surviving partner, that he would be comforted in his grief and that God would meet him through this. And for our family, that we would be able to support him and love him and be a testimony to him through this. 

So our next door neighbor passed away today. I only know because I was running a half-hour behind schedule today, and I was headed out the door when I saw the gurney in my neighbor's driveway. My stomach instantly wove itself into a million knots. I had just gotten off a Skype call with my apologetics student, talking about how people need support in their pain. I thought to myself, "I should go over there. Just check if he needs anything." In an instant a million excuses jumped to mind. Better to call my parents, who had been visiting our neighbor through the progression of his illness. Better to leave comforting to the friend that appeared to be visiting, the car that was in the driveway. I was supposed to be at school. I had to leave. I stood in my living room, paralyzed by the spinning rolodex of thinking about doing.

I think a lot about doing things. During winter break I drove to campus almost every day for my J-term class, and almost every day I passed a kid with a backpack headed towards school. The first time I saw him I thought, "I should ask him if he wants a ride." But there was always a reason not to. Either there were cars behind me and I couldn't pull over, or he had headphones on and most assuredly wouldn't hear me, or I was running late to class and couldn't spare a moment to stop, or he was already almost up the hill and giving him a lift 0.25 miles wouldn't make a difference. Some days my excuse was as feeble as, I'm too tired, or my backpack is in the passenger seat. Every day I thought to myself, "Tomorrow is the day I offer him a ride." But that day never came.

I think about making phone calls to check in and catch up with people. I think about scheduling coffee dates and meeting people for dinner. I think about smiling at and making eye contact with people I walk past. I think about making conversation with my classmates. I think about stopping for those cars on the side of the highway. I think about getting treats for the kids at the Wal-Mart RIPTA stop. I think about prayer-walking the places I feel burdened over. I think about making grand romantic gestures. But I don't do. I just think about doing. Like someone exhausted after twelve hours of sleep, I think about how I have been blessed in order to be a blessing, and I hog the blessing all to myself. 

I hate that I do that. 

Back to my neighbor. I approached the front door and rang the bell. A man I didn't recognize answered, I guess he belonged to the car in the driveway. He indicated my neighbor was in the backyard processing, so I offered my condolences and hurried away. And as I drove to school I thought to myself, "So this is what obedience feels like?" And let's be clear, I didn't actually do anything. I never saw my neighbor, didn't give him a hug, didn't drop off some bread and milk. On the one hand, my visit was fruitless. On the other hand, I visited. This is where my thinking frequently interferes with my doing: I have spirit that insists on justifications for actions and demands proof of outcomes. There is a stubborn streak in me that answers with an insolent "why?" to any invitations outside my comfort zone. 

I have a rebellious heart that is just too comfortable. 

I'm very weary of baby steps, of struggling to do small and simple things like ring a neighbor's doorbell. I'm discouraged that every gesture I make outside of myself is buried under a mountain of selfish gestures. I'm frustrated that I can't seem to tap into this strength Christ gives us, to set aside the old self and walk forward as the righteous. I hate doing things that aren't easy, and doing what I'm supposed to do is not easy, and I hate it. How many times will I find the joy in obedience before I choose obedience with consistence? When will obedience become the rule and not the exception? When will I be free of the indecisive excuses that justify my inaction and instead step forward confidently with wisdom? I count this struggle as divine discontent; I grimly grasp the plow. Okay. Let me keep at this. He is faithful. 

If Anne can, so can I

I have a horrendous Peter Pan complex. When did it start? When I was six years old and solemnly walked upstairs to my parents' room to inform my mom that I would no longer be watching Barney each evening? When I was ten and read a juvenile fiction book about turning eleven, and decided right then and there that eleven would be a miserable year? (Fun fact: I'm turning 22 this year. Ugh. My favorite number times my least favorite number. And my golden birthday. Watch out.) Could it have been when I was thirteen and sat abandoned on the state house steps, and watched all the lobbyists and activists who I would never be? Was it when I was sixteen years old and decided I was unprepared for college and had to take a fifth year of high school? When did it start, really?

It's like this pattern of thinking just crept into my mind and I took it as a given. And so I've minimized the milestones as inconsequential, and labeled the emotional duress as typical, and framed my little life experience in the context of a meaningless childhood . . . All for the sake of my mantra, "Wait! You're not grown up yet." With each new experience, fear gripped my heart and it whispered to me, "This is too uncomfortable, you don't want to grow up." But it's too late, my twenties are upon me. I cannot stave off the passage of time; adulthood has already taken residence in my life. Now the fear is more overwhelming than ever, because with each passing day I realize that I have no freaking clue what I'm doing. 

Regardless, I still want to do it right. This is one thing I love about reading Penelope Trunk. She tells you how you should live your life. This is, of course, entirely counter-intuitive to how life theoretically ought to be lived. If learning is the process of discovering what it is you don't know, following the life plan of someone who's lived and succeeded is not necessarily the most fruitful path to take. But I want to age successfully, you know? It's a field of academia that's exploding right now, as our society realizes that we've been doing aging clumsily all along. I want to be a competent, vibrant human being who brings glory to Jesus and not to herself. I want to be well-adjusted. Is that too much to ask of myself? Of sanctification? I don't think so!

Peter* told me once that growing up isn't about milestones and threshold-crossing. I was so incredulous. I thought growing up meant paying your own bills and living on your own and making appointments and having a real job that gets taxed and being separate and individualist and on your own. It seemed to me that if I was to learn to be an adult, I had to fake it by acting like one until my brain caught up with me. Instead his comment reminded me, if growing up is about maturity and responsibility, you can't force these things by going through the motions of being an adult. There is no "do this, and then you'll be grown up" checklist. There is no formula. There is no point of arrival.

There are so many things I just don't want to deal with. Making new friends (I like the ones I had in high school!), trying new things (I like the things I'm used to doing!), challenging myself by stepping into a world I've never visited before (I like the world I knew!). How curious that though my mind wants more than anything to be freed from itself, my heart wants nothing more than to stay the way it is. As though I trust Him only to be faithful in the here and now, and not in the future. My youth is my comfort zone, and as it has been yanked away from me, I can't help but wonder, am I blowing it? After all, I've only got one shot. What business have I messing around with things I know nothing about? I find myself panicked in a world that is demanding that I live well. How can I rise to this provocation?

Naturally, this fear is not constructive. It is paralyzing instead of promotive. It makes me cling to my Peter Pan complex instead of embracing the challenge of running the race with endurance. How do I begin to convince myself that I love change? Is there not a thrill in the calendar whipping forward, in the days ticking away? Isn't it a wonderful thing to see children grow into teenagers and your friends get married? Don't you love the satisfaction in completion; another year survived, another semester earned? Does not time and change bring depth with dynamics, that make us wiser and richer with experience and history? Is not the greatest joy found in seeing what it is God has done? And the picture of His plan for the world is revealed bit by bit every day. If in nothing else, I comfort myself with testimony. 

He has always been there. The little girl who told lies and stole rings. The whipper snapper who was afraid of demons in the dark. The teenager who could not bring herself to pick up the phone. The college student who is cowed by routine. He has never washed His hands of me. In this is responsibility to make Him famous. Surviving this long is testimony to who He is; our Father God, eternally faithful. And He will get me where I'm going.

*Not Peter Pan, in case that was unclear.

Grave Dressing

As some of you may have heard, I've accepted a part-time year-long position teaching English abroad. Um, there's lots to say about that. Forthcoming, perhaps. But because of the duration of this, thing, and because I'll be headed (hopefully) to law school when I return state-side, I'm coming to the realization that maybe I should start taking inventory of my worldly possessions. Having been alive for almost 22 years, I've actually accumulated a lot stuff. Clothes, trinkets, books, papers, gadgets. Et cetera. And I'd really like to have just one cardboard box to carry through life with me. 

But.

What am I to do with the mementos from outings with friends and inside jokes and teasing conversations that remind me of happy and heavy times?

What am I to do with the folders and nametags from various conferences and seminars that enriched me mind and soul, teaching me lessons I want to remember? 

What am I to do with the pages and pages of notes, diagrams, and projects that have been turned in and graded over the course of my undergraduate studies?

What am I to do with the numerous volumes detailing the mundane events and angsty crises dating from the present all the way back to when I was eight and first discovered what a joy a diary was? 

Tell me, what am I to do with it all? Right now I have a bookshelf and a Tupperware bin filled with what I've deemed my memories: debate flows, and musical programs, and wedding place cards, and ticket stubs. My journals and notebooks keep stacking up, and bookshelf space is prime real estate. 

I thought, if only I could some how digitize it all, have all these memories at my fingertips within some computational hierarchy on my hard drive or the cloud. (Readily summoned at a time of homesickness or nostalgia, useful too for cross-cultural English teaching, as in, "What's a Slip'n'Slide? Here, let me show you!") Then I could always have my memories with me, wherever I ended up, without having to lug around binders and folders and portfolios. But what is there, really? Picasa, Pinterest, Evernote, Springpad, Instagram, Tumblr . . . none quite right. 

When I was eleven I was a horrific packrat. I saved everything. Candy wrappers and stickers from doctor's visits. I like to think I've come a long way since then. The cycle broken when my mom made me hold up my volcano model created for KONOS, snapped a picture, and put it in the trash. "When in doubt throw it out," she said, and I'm always in doubt of these worldly goods that weigh on my soul. I'm a minimalist now. 

Oh, but the memories! It's one thing to pass on my favorite shirt to my sister, or downsize my jewelry collection, or throw out old makeup, but it is painful to part with sentimental value. The day I threw out all of my NCFCA ballots (and I mean all, from my very first tournament competing in OI with Robert Lawson's "Rabbit Hill" in 2003 to that final round of DUO during the 2010 national tournament, it was a stack three feet high, and I tossed them all) I felt disturbed. I still regret not saving just a few. Lilly is devoted to making meaning. And I get that, because similarly, I am devoted to memory.

I blame Lois Lowry's The Giver. I can't help it. I'm obsessed with remembering. I'm a slave to nostalgia. So what's a minimalist to do? 

Pep talk

I've been plagued with internal conflict. Most of the time I brush it to the corners of my mind; I am concerned with surviving, not thriving. There is a manageable but challenging to-do list before me, and I keep a brisk pace on the treadmill to just barely stay on top of everything, but in doing so I have pushed reflection to the corners of my life. It is only in the car rides (with the music blaring), and in the pre-sleep moments (with the fatigue setting in), that I catch a sliver of anemic analysis. My journal has gone neglected for many months, and my devotions are stilted by the guilt of shallowness. 

And so I've been wondering, what is right living? How do I level up? Where am I lacking? How do I love Him more? How do I love others more? (Why do I feel so shallow, empty, and dispassionate?) And, ugh, you know, boys. 

This week I went to my professor's office hours, intent on confronting him about his arbitrary grading practices. But the conversation turned out much differently than any other conversation I've ever had with a nigh stranger, I wish I could have recorded it. Instead he told me who I was. A diligent student more concerned with right answers than self-examination. An idealist who is unwilling to abandon her orientation to the world. He told me to stop worrying about my grade, and to stop "phoning in" on the homework. "You want to be a lawyer you have to learn to argue both sides," he told me. As he left he charged me: question your paradigm, challenge your own answers.

My sister frequently accuses me, "You always think you're right!" And I would respond, without irony, "No, I don't! You're wrong!" I have a healthy appetite for self-doubt. I am always asking myself, what do I think about xyz? I frequently look at my faith, or libertarianism, and wonder, could I be wrong about all this? I make a concerted effort to be intentional in my search for truth, because I believe the axiom that an unexamined life is not worth living. And yet, it's so strange, this has led me not to humility in search of wisdom, but instead to a self-righteousness and rigid justification. Why would I bother to believe something I had not examined and found to be valid? I had refused to believe my sister was right, and still my inflexible insistence proved her correct. It took an office hour with a crazy professor for me to glimpse that.

And so I asked my professor, how is it that I can come to question my own answers? What does that look like? "I couldn't tell you," he said. "Even if I knew, you have to learn it for yourself." 

This feels contrary to who I supposed I was. I am an idealist. I feel strongly and unflinchingly about the way things ought to be. I believe there is a right way to see things. I make decisions based on the peace they give me, presuming the peace that comes with rightness. I cannot abide conflict within me. Confusion and chaos is the enemy of my mental wellbeing and stability. "How do I learn to do what you're asking me to do without going crazy," I questioned my professor. "You won't go crazy," he told me. On what he bases that assessment, I just don't know. And I don't think he's asking me to let go of my idealism, but I think he is prodding me to examine the way I get there. 

Even now I feel guilty, sitting here, thinking about this. I have a mountain of school to get to. I have an even bigger mountain of laundry sitting in my room. I have people to get back to, connect with, touch base with. (And aren't people the most important thing?) I know doubt is important, and I value self-examination, but it's awfully time consuming and I wonder if I already do too much of it . . .

On the one hand, I find comfort in what Luke says: everything is not a big deal, there's no need to get worked up over the transitory. There really is no point in thinking one's self into despair, and stuff has a tendency to work itself out. Regression into the meta often ends in nihilism. Entropy may be a thing, but so is equilibrium. A heathy perspective is a balanced one. I need more of this pragmatism, and less of this solitary confinement within my own mind.

On the other hand, I also track with Josiah and what he's told me of his experience at L'Abri. Questions are not as valuable for the answering, but for the clarifying. The task is discovering and describing the "subterranean", the motivate behind the questions themselves. What is the root from which the plant grows? The deeper and more pervasive the question, the more hard-won and long-sought the answer is.

What can I say? What can I do? But offer this heart, oh God, completely to You. 

I don't know, this stuff is meant to be talked about. To be explored in community. That's the only moral-to-the-story I've got. I empathize with Georgia; I cannot bear to end with a conclusory pat answer. 

Prince of Darkness - Indigo Girls

In case it hasn't come up on conversation, I have to mention that the Perspectives course is blowing my mind. In many ways it's so wasteful. Like spiritual gluttony. Like maybe my heart is not where it should be to make the most of the rich teaching I'm hearing. And maybe I should be more faithful with doing the homework. (I should be doing it right now. When I'm not blogging, I'm not procrastinating.) But last week in class the speaker mentioned in passing that Satan is not omnipresent. 

And my head snapped up from the sparse notes I was taking. What was this?! I had never heard this before, but it made such perfect sense to me! Ah, yes, just because he's spiritual doesn't mean Satan shares the same properties Jesus does. Just because I can talk to God whenever and whenever I want doesn't mean Satan is similarly summoned. He probably doesn't even know I exist. Sure, he has plenty of fallen angels at his command, and there's probably some demon keeping tabs on me, but much of the trouble I face is of my own doing, not Satan's. 

Ah, this is sobering.

And now someone's on the telephone, desperate in his pain

Someone's on the bathroom floor doing her cocaine

Someone's got his finger on the button in some room

No one can convince me we aren't gluttons for our doom

I think of genocide, nuclear war, murder and lies, addiction, broken relationships, injured hearts, sweat, hate, death, hopeless fates and victims of circumstance. We have corrupted the very ground we walk on. And we're so quick to blame it on the schemes of Satan. I hear he's a schemer, make no mistake, but much of what we would give him credit for is the outpouring of the corruption in our own hearts. One must wonder how there manages to be anything good and of worth in this world at all, so pervasive is the evil we have created and are creating. 

My place is of the sun and this place is of the dark

(By grace my sight grows stronger, grows stronger)

I do not feel the romance I do not catch the spark

(And I will not be a pawn for the Prince of Darkness any longer)

What is the place of the redeemed in all of this? I think of the four circles diagram, my favorite tool for explaining the story of creation, fall, redemption, and mission. We are sent on mission to be part of the healing of the world. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe. He broke the cycle, He freed the slave, and He is the source of all that is beautiful in the world I know. But how can there be so much beauty in so much dirt? Forget the magnitude of human suffering for a moment and think small; why does my heart hurt so much? How is it that this darkness encroaches from afar into our churches, our families, our relationships, and our hearts? How can I be on mission bringing healing and spreading the message of redemption when I don't have my stuff together? 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm weary of brokenness. I am tired by the judgmental thoughts that rolodex through my mind, by the flashes of temper that color my interactions, by the shallowness and apathy that grip my stone-cold heart. I am weighted by the knowledge that the sin in me is no different than the sin that has spawned the world's greatest ills. "But I tried to make this place my place! I'll tell you, my place is of the sun and this place is of the dark." I'm restless for goodness, for perfection, for completed redemption. I'm restless for Him to come back. This place is not my place. 

 

One of the things I love about Perspectives is that many of the speakers are seasoned by experience. They speak not only with the depth of great theological wisdom, but also with the conviction of eyewitness testimony. They are missionaries who have known pain and sacrificed much to see His name made great among the nations. They are rabid for our Jesus to come back, and they are hungry for His glory to be magnified. And so they go, blessed to be a blessing among those who have never dreamed of praising our God. There is hurt and evil everywhere, but it is because they are restless for perfect and for His return that they embrace the brokenness. Weariness is replaced by urgency. Hurry, He is coming! 

And that's what I want. I will not be a pawn for the prince of darkness any longer. 

Get Comfy

You know what's horrible about being a teenager? Angst. And I know that's so stereotypical, like everyone looks at teens with pity, and thinks of how frustrating but blessedly transient all those bothersome hormone-driven feelings are, and isn't growing up such a relief, and blah blah blah. But seriously, it's cliche but true. One of the best things about getting out of high school was leaving a lot of that angst behind. Or so I thought.

The unfortunate thing that I am learning, is that uncomfortable feelings are not just a teenager thing. Uncomfortable feelings are a human thing. 

I've been in the La-La Land of high highs and low lows. Exuberant in my car rides and conversations, melancholy in my musings and routines. Frustrated and excited by the future. Comforted by some people, pining for others. I'm engulfed by these waves of feelings; at any given time something's on my mind and it's hard to push it out. Is this not part of life? In the throes of always growing older (and hopefully also growing wiser and more like Jesus) are there not also challenging and uncomfortable situations, matters of the heart to address? A life devoid of uncomfortable feelings may well also be a life devoid of growth. Still it's troubling to try and talk it out, because I don't understand much of this churning my stomach sometimes does.

How do you explain what milk tastes like to someone who's never tasted it? You can say it's white, and creamy, and usually cold. Maybe you can talk about how it's high in fat and reminds you of how babies smell. But despite the exhaust of words available for your use, no amount of talking will enable the other person to truly understand the taste of milk. They have to taste it for themselves. 

It's kind of that way with feelings, yes? You can use common labels and descriptors, you can give examples, or scream and shout and let it all out, but feelings are not something that can be accurately translated to someone who has never experienced the same feelings. Sensations and feelings are both intensely personal, so much so that sometimes they isolate us and overwhelm us. 

But here's the thing. Your problems are not particularly special. Your angst is not unique to you. (I say you because I really mean me.) Everyone has issues. When you feel ostracized and alone because of your struggles, you miss out on the healing unity of commiseration. This is why it's so important to try to articulate the feelings that escape description, because in trying you eventually find the people who understand. Everyone struggles, no one's special, everyone feels uncomfortable things. Penelope Trunk points out that having problems does not make you exempt from dealing with life, so get comfortable with being uncomfortable. We're all in good company.

Suggestions to Incoming Collegiates

My time as an undergraduate is ticking, which seems ridiculous to me when I consider how small, ignorant, and inexperienced I feel. I'm a junior masquerading as a senior. I'm a poser. I don't know what I'm doing. Nevertheless, the paperwork has been filed, the coursework has been completed, and with a few midterms under my belt I can feel myself turning the scary corner. And while I'm reeling from the vertigo of this premature expulsion, I am also beginning to feel the steadying effect of nostalgia. It's true that I don't know much, but the suggestions below are what I did when I was a freshman, and I'm glad I did. 

Get your professor to like you. 

If your professor likes you, they will be rooting for you to succeed. It's easier to get good grades when your professor wants you to get good grades. Additionally, it's easier to work hard on your coursework when you have a relationship with your instructor. It's amazing how motivated you feel when you're trying to turn in work that's worthy of your professor's time. The student-teacher relationship is symbiotic: if you like them and they like you, everybody wins. Don't be that creepy stalker that always talks to them after class and is always sending them emails and goes to every office hour just to schmooze. Just be the student you would want to teach. They'll like you for that.

Find the resources.

Most people at my school don't know there's a lawyer on call to give out legal advice for students free of charge. Most people at my school don't know that you can borrow professional videography equipment, iPads, and voice recorders from the campus production labs. Every day, somewhere on my campus, there is free food to be had, and most students have no idea. There's great stuff out there, you just have to seek it out. When you start school you will feel alone. You won't know where to go and what to do. But believe me when I say there are offices out there that exist for the mere purpose of making your life easier! You just have to find them. They won't come to you.

Pick a side.

Educational communities are wonderful things, but bureaucracy is not. Rest assured you will face both. Bureaucracy will screw you over. They will ask you to sign forms you don't have access to, and they will refer you to offices that have no idea what you're talking about, and they will treat your reasonable request like it's the most inconvenient and outlandish request they've ever gotten. But don't back down! Bite the bullet, do what they say, find the people in the administration who will back you up, and see it through to the end. Though you are technically powerless as a student in the political cogs of the university, if you find the right advocate you can be heard. And that principle matters. Getting involved with administration politics has made my college experience ten times more interesting and is maybe even teaching me more about the real world than my classes are.

Finish your gen-eds first.

You may be gung-ho to dig right into your area of study, and your curriculum requirements may even direct it, but if at all possible force yourself to get all those 101 classes out of the way. Believe me when I say that you do not want to be the only senior in a class of 250 freshmen taking the introduction to astrophysics class. By the time you're an upperclassmen you won't care about the courses that are meant broaden your horizon. You'll love your discipline too much to waste your time on a subject you'll never use. Or worse, you'll discover a new love in a new major and wonder if you missed your calling in life. Senior year is too late to change your educational trajectory. Get it out of your system while you're still figuring out your interests.

Explore.

Even if your school isn't a multi-college state research institution with 16,000 undergraduates like mine is, chances are you haven't seen everything on campus. The hallmark of freshmen is that lost and confused expression on their faces. Begin exploring and that bewildered feeling will subside. Give other freshmen directions and they'll assume you're an upperclassmen. This is the best feeling. And you'll stumble across so much cool stuff! My school has rose gardens, aquariums, simulations labs, historic documents and paintings, robots, carnivorous plants, and hallways lined with display cases of rocks, models, taxidermy animals, and artifacts. Most of your life will not be spent in an epicenter of learning. Drink it in while you can. 

There are probably lots of other things incoming freshmen should also do. Like get involved with student organizations, and go to class, and record all your new memories, and don't eat too much junk food to sate your initial feelings of freedom and loneliness, because the freshman-fifteen is really a thing. Stuff like that. There's plenty of good advice out there. My suggestions are just what worked for me. I want to remember what this setting was like, this time here at my school, what I did and what made it work for me and what I liked best. There's so much to say. I'm mentally preparing myself for the end.