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This article is part of our Change Generation project, supported by KBC. To read more click here.
GETTING THE BALANCE right at college can be a tough ask.
There’s a lot to contend with: the pressures of lectures, expectations of the people around you, figuring out what kind of social life you want to have. Not to mention the fact that it can seem like everyone else has it all figured out already (spoiler alert: they don’t).
We asked students in Trinity College Dublin for their advice for other students, given that they’ve already been through it all in the past few years.
Their advice is practical, telling, and reassuring – unsurprisingly, they focus on being brave, getting involved and throwing yourself into the whole college experience.
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A can of Lynx is not a shower.
Also the real world and real-life jobs & employers really don’t care about your feelings, anxieties or whether or not you’re offended by something and really don’t consider you as a special unique snowflake.
So learn to manage your emotions now and get on with the job at hand..
Go when you’re 30. Use your twenties for traveling the world, partying, gigs, festivals, crappy jobs, etc. Most won’t have a clue really what they want to study at 18, get out and get some experience of the world first. You’ll be working in a career for a long time….
That itch will not go away if you just ignore it.
Study what you want, not what you think you should. That’s where I went wrong.
Drink, smoke, have tonnes of sex. Try to fit in some lectures in between, and use weekends to do assignments
Study something useful.
Attend tutorials, they help prepare you for exams and clarify practical aspects of the subjects.
If you have trouble with a subject speak to your lecturer, also there’s probably a post-grad in the department more than happy to give grinds for a bit of extra cash.
Familiarise yourself with the different student support services provided and if you find yourself in difficulty avail of them sooner rather than later.
Living at home while going to college is a wasted experience.
Avoid drug dealers and feminists.
you’ll make more money if you dont go to college and learn a trade instead.
Ladies and gentlemen of the class of 2016, wear sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists
Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
Than my own meandering experience, I will dispense this advice now
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind
You will never understand the power
And the beauty of your youth until they’ve faded
But trust me, in twenty years
You will look back at photos of yourself
And recall in a way you can’t grasp now
How much possibility lay before you
And how fabulous you really looked
You are not as fat as you imagine
Don’t worry about the future or worry that know that worrying
Is as affective as trying to solve an algebra equation
By chewing bubble gum
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things
That never crossed your worried mind
The kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday
Do one thing every day that scares you, sing
Don’t be reckless with other peoples’ hearts
Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours, floss
Don’t waste your time on jealousy
Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind
The race is long and in the end, it’s only with yourself
Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements, stretch
Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what to do with your life
The most interesting people
I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t
Get plenty of calcium
Be kind to knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone
Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t
Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t
Maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the “Funky Chicken”
On your 75th wedding anniversary
Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much
Or berate yourself either
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can
Don’t be afraid of it or what other people think of it
It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own, dance
Even if you have nowhere to do it but your own living room
Read the directions even if you don’t follow them
Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly
Brother and sister together will make it through
Someday a spirit will take you and guide you there
I know you’ve been hurting, but I’ve been waiting to be there for you
And I’ll be there just helping you out, whenever I can
Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good
Be nice to your siblings, they are your best link to your past
And the people most likely to stick with you in the future
Understand that friends come and go
But a precious few, who should hold on
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle
For as the older you get, the more you need the people
You knew when you were young
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard
Live in northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft
Travel, accept certain inalienable truths
Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old
And when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young
Prices were reasonable, politicians were noble
And children respected their elders
Respect your elders, don’t expect anyone else to support you
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you’ll have a wealthy spouse
But you’ll never know when either one will run out
Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re forty
It will look eighty-five
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
Wishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off
Painting over the ugly parts and recycling for more than it’s worth
But trust me on the sunscreen
Brother and sister together will make it through, oh yeah
Someday a spirit will take you and guide you there
I know you’ve been hurting, but I’ve been waiting to be there for you
And I’ll be there just helping you out, whenever I can
Everybody’s free, oh yeah, everybody’s free, oh yeah, oh, to feel good
Lecturers aren’t unapproachable figures of authority like teachers in secondary school. You can talk to them, have a coffee with them, send them emails and they won’t scold you for missing their class now and again.
Don’t join young fg/ff. You’ll spend the rest of your life commenting on the journal and thinking your still young.
Follow what you love, not the money but most importantly enjoy it because out the other end theres a hungry machine that needs feeding :)
@Myk_Oval_Balls_nRyt: Mind you at 18 who knows what they love… Enjoy yourself, you’ll be grand.
Don’t join protest like the Jobstown one or as I call it Driving Ms. Crazy.
The biggest thing is safe sex, becareful about drinking and drugs as well as watch your money, as nothing goes as quick as money?
Drop out.
If you get offered some or a lot of…No Strings Fun… take it.
My brother is starting at trinity today. Good god
@Kim Prylowski: Trinity is a nice name for a girl, sorry ;)
Attend a university abroad there gone to Crap here they don’t rate internationly
@Upowthat Burke: How do you know? You aren’t even familiar with the basics of English spelling and punctuation, much less universities here or anywhere else.
Join a club or society
@Michael Shaw: BDSM lol.
Doesn’t matter how hard you work or how well you do, you’ll probably be under or unemployed when you graduate.
@Seán J. Troy: Not if you work hard enough?
Lentils are your friend
@Sean Walsh: So is toilet paper then?
I drink whisley and 7up. If you steal my drink the nexy one will be left for you. Just remember in a dark club urine can look like whickey and 7up
@phil: I think the taste might be a giveaway if not the smell? Be worse it it was antifreeze in it?
Study what you love not what you think will get you a nice salary. If you chase what you love money will follow. Learn a second language in that country for a year. Dont be enslaved by the point system! A lot of it is dictated by the number of places a college can cater to . If you fail first year and dont like the course change the course. Dont stick with it in the hope you will grow to love it. You wont. Good Luck. Life is short.
Don’t worry about your leaveing cert, and collage go traveling learn and see new things come across a job that suits you better or confirms that you really want that path. To many stress and worrie and either drop out or end up getting jobs in different careers. Learn and experience while young.
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