Your college experience can be really amazing. For a long time I felt like I wasted my college time because I didn’t target a career, but now I see that I benefited from the breadth of classes. It’s a unique time to explore, so here is some advice for making the most of your college experience while you have the opportunity.
College is designed as a place where you can try new things. So, take advantage of opportunities to try courses in areas you’ve never tried, but always wanted to. Take at least one class per quarter or semester that’s just for personal enrichment. It may not be a part of your major area, but it will enrich you as a person to follow your interests. Colleges have many different electives and courses to try just for fun, so be sure and have one in your schedule at all times. Some courses may be a part of a major that is not yours. Others may be just recreational, such as dance, yoga or even the game of bridge. Maybe you need an English credit. Instead of taking a basic English 101 course, consider an alternative such as Irony, for example. Try Botany, instead of basic Science.
Take a Philosophy course such as Science and Religion, or Philosophy of Sex and Love. Broaden your mind! College is the time to take advantage of all you can learn. Make your college experience your own learning experience.
Other opportunities will come your way in college. Some opportunities will include travel. Go! See all that you can! Study abroad, if you have the chance. Or, just take a weekend trip into a big city with friends. Experience life. Just stay away from anything you know would be harmful or illegal, or both. When I was a Sophomore, I was walking back from a class one day and the Army ROTC class was practicing repelling off the top of one of the school buildings. They were offering anyone who wanted to try it to come up and try it. So, I did. Now I can say I’ve repelled from the top of a building before. Have you? There are so many ways to make the most of your college experience.
Maybe you’re thinking of rushing a fraternity or sorority. You will have that opportunity. Just never let your explorations and outside activities take the place of your study time. Gaining new experiences and making friends is a part of the college experience, but always remember that doing well in your courses comes first. First and foremost, your college experience is for learning.
Working during college is fine, as long as you don’t let your studies suffer. I think that working during college helps you stay responsible, and it is a great source for that pizza money you’ll be wanting. Work-study or work on campus jobs are the best kinds of jobs, usually. Check the job board in your college’s administrative office.
When I was in college, I had a job working as stage crew for visiting productions. As a result, I got to meet famous performers, and also didn’t have to buy tickets to events. When you’re making money and paying your own way for things, you don’t have to hit up your parents for money so often. Your college experience is your own make it great!
When I was about to enter my first year of university study a number of people told me that I was about to experience the best time of my life. Your college experience has a profound effect on the rest of your professional and personal life. This is a time to make lifelong friendships, establish career connections and create your professional identity. It is important to use your college experience to its greatest potential if you want to get a head start.
Many of us enter our college years with a solid plan for our future. We know what we want to do as a career professional and we know what specific steps to take to reach our goals. Others have no real direction and the only plan these individuals have is to find a major that they like. Your college experience will be different if you have no specific goals but you can easily manage your four years gracefully.
Make sure that you take classes that appeal to you. This is the first step to finding a major that suits you. I began my college career as a communications major. I switched to art but I didn’t find my home until I took a poetry writing workshop. My entire outlook on my university studies changed. I found my niche and settled right in without another thought. Your college experience may change if you take the right electives.
Using your interests and talents to accentuate your college experience will pay off in the long run. Taking courses that give you nightmares will not. Of course, you have to take some classes that you hate in order to obtain a well rounded liberal arts education. However, you can make your college experience less stressful if you approach these courses carefully.
Try to take less appealing classes with a friend who can help you along. Studying alone can be painful if you hate the topic but studying with a friend can really give you motivation. Your buddy may also know some learning strategies for the specific class that make the process less painful. In fact taking a challenging course with a friend may turn out to be your college experience that you find most valuable.
Another great way to deal with distasteful classes is to choose a time of day that is best for you. Your college
experience will teach you that you function better during certain hours than you do others. For example, I avoided taking classes between the hours of one and three because I would become drowsy during that time of day. Instead, I engaged in activities like aerobics or swimming to give me an afternoon life.
Your college experience will teach you many things. You may even learn a little bit about your self along the way.
Do you want to make money and live comfortably??? One key to making more money is to begin to really welcome the idea that money can come from anywhere, and anytime. Whether you have millions now, or whether you are down to your last penny, the basic principle is the same: Be open to multiple sources of income.
For the wealthy investors, the typical word for this philosophy to make money is: Diversification.
But the same principle holds true for those with little or no money. For instance, if you are looking for work, consider the possibility of getting two or three part-time jobs, instead of just one main job. This is entirely possible nowadays, thanks to online resources such as craigslist, or the ease of being able to create your own website.
Get more than one money making gig going!
Here is one possible scenario: You could get a 15-20 hour/week job as an office assitancnt, for example, (a temp agency is one way to get such a job, word of mouth is another, or you might also try college campuses, or try posting an ad on health food store bulletin boards). This part/half-time job can be your base.
Then, you might put the word out that you are available for house sitting. If you have never done house sitting before, you might be surprised how rewarding it is. It can be like going on vacation! You could be surrounded in luxury for a few days, and you will be getting paid for it!
You could also walk dogs, be a caregiver for the elderly, or tutor a few kids in math to make money.
Then, amidst all these jobs, you would still have time to build your own website/business, and make money doing what you really want to be doing. Why not start that hat making business you always wanted to start? Or sell things on Ebay? Or start teaching piano lessons, or become a workout coach?
Put yourself and all your energy into more than one area, and you can make money from more than one source. This is the basic principle that many people are using to create more meony, and have more fun in the process.
If you don’t know where to start, just keep your eyes open. Ask people if they need part-time help. Tell all the people you know what you are wanting to do. Let your voice and your email list go to good use.
Before you know it, you will have a diversified way of making money, variety in your days, and a little more free time. It sure beats working for peanuts at one job you do not even like.
Most budding journalists or authors thing that paper and publication is the only way to be a legitimate author, but I always counter with “why not a blog?” To that I often get furrowed brows and hazy looks. ABlog! That’s not writing!
I recall criticism of Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs and their practice of typing out stream of consciouness. One critic said “that’s not writing, its Typing!” I wonder what the beat authors would have done with blogs!
But blog or not, there are ways to write for any publication and topics that will always garner readers. Like Jennifer Garner? Bad pun.
There are as many methods or advice columns as there are disagreements, it seems, but suffice it to say that with the internet as the up-and-coming publication of the millennium, how to write a piece for an online publication is a safe place to start.
HOW to WRITE a SIMPLE ARTICLE
There are rules and competitive strategies for learning how to write a keyword-rich article, so I will save you the advanced details and possible advancement of a headache…and launch into how to write a simple article for an online database, one that accepts and offers its readership free articles, for example. In addition, I will focus solely on the genre or type of article that is typically most accessible, or useable/readable.
Every website (or almost every website) has a general theme—a connectedness of topic or concern. So imagine you are going to write for a kitchen cabinet design firm. The company needs ten articles to start. (Again, this is just a hypothetical scenario; most sites are looking at building a database of 300+ articles….) Just as many of us experienced in college classes where the numbers of students were auditorium-sized and the instructor therefore gave loose assignments to write, say, a ten-paged paper on anything to do with California history, the web master or mistress will ask for ten articles related to kitchen cabinets. This is where you get to be imaginative, or at least inventive.
Stand in your kitchen and stare at your kitchen cupboards. What are all the ways to say cabinet? What parts, tools, and techniques are involved in designing and crafting and installing this handy closed-in structure or component? What are all the kinds of materials used in building one? What is the oldest cabinet you have ever seen? (I saw one on Craigslist the other day that was an apothecary cabinet, circa the 1920’s, made of steel and glass.) So, for starters, you can see how to write a piece on cabinets, one would consider origin, materials, and designs/types/styles. That is, you can see how to write a few paragraphs in variation you might approach as follows:
*Use a/a number of Definition/s- define the terms used in cabinetry. A glossary is most informative and helpful to the potential buyer, user, or even beginning/apprentice carpenter.
*Try a Bulleted List- post specifics/details as a readable and easily scanned list of facts or trivia.
*Do a Survey of X – write an article that covers the history of the thing, concept, event, experience, person, or place….
*Cover Style/Type Variations – with many products or items comes a string of time periods (history), and with these come new movements, new styles.
Further, how to write a piece includes what this very article purports to do: show readers how to X—in the case of cabinets, how to choose, how to decorate, even how to build, install, clean, upgrade, etc. would work nicely.
In addition, here are a few more popular formats:
The Q and A – use existing questions and make up your own, then answer them.
The Narrative – people love stories.
Try Quotes and Trivia – if applicable, quotes are as interesting as tales and discussions of trials and tribulations and success—with, in this last case, cabinets.
This ought to give you a start with how to write a publishable/saleable article. You could start with your own web site and see what responses you get. Or you could create pages for a friend. Just get practicing…and have fun doing so.
In community college, one of the best courses I took (which was a requisite, actually) was on how to improve communication skills. The teacher was a trip, and was equally adept at making the class interesting and engaging as well as informative. I still recall the tools and techniques often. In fact, just the other day I was discussing the practice of clear communication whereby one person (a.k.a. the speaker) sends information, the receiver (or listener) takes in the information and then reiterates in his/her own words, and the sender confirms that the listener received it the way it was intended.
I won’t get into the metaphysics of how words/language can be misinterpreted, unheard, neglected, abused, etc., but will instead stick with the basics for how to improve communication skills as I learned them and as I try to practice them. And I will share what I remember for those who wish to speak in public, not for those in an interpersonal relationship or what have you….
First, acknowledge that public speaking sucks for most human beings. [One comic—or maybe it was an ad—said that if the number one fear is speaking in public and the number two fear is death, does that mean people would rather die than talk aloud to a crowd? ] Anyway, this is what I do: I think of the material/topic I will be speaking on; I realize how much I love the subject; and I focus on my love for the subject. I trick myself, that is, into shifting my focus from how I will speak to what I will speak on…forgetting all about being afraid! [Screw that “imagine the audience in their underwear” thing. I am not sure that works anymore.]
Next, stand tall, and speak out. If you speak out over the heads of the audience, you should get a good thing going with the acoustics in the room. I know you need to look down at your notes, but since we all understand that notes are involved, there is no need to try to hide the notes…so how about holding them in your hand at chest level when you refer to them? Screw the podium—unless you are nervous. If you are, the thing blocking you will relieve nerves a bit. If it doesn’t refer back to the first suggestion for how to improve communication skills.
And finally, take ownership. Just as you will stand proud and just as you will feel the love, so shall you learn how to improve communication skills by owning that stage, pulpit, podium space, or head of the table area in the conference room. Look at the listeners. Imagine you have knowledge of something they know much less about and therefore they NEED you to be good, kind, and direct.
And, for God’s sake—and your audience’s—be interesting. If you aren’t a typically funny person, smile. Studies show a smiling presenter gets more positive evaluation anyway. Move about. Change your tone. Try it. Try yammering away to a crowd, then suddenly dropping into a whisper. Check out how many will perk up all of a sudden.
I once did a stint at a residential treatment center for boys between the ages of 13 and 30. I was a writer then, too, but had reason to believe I needed a “real” major that would find me in a “real” job, and therefore (ha) took up psychology and a job at the center. There, the boys were of varying ages and faced a range of difficulties—from low tolerance thresholds to autism to schizophrenia. We counselors-in-training had weekly training sessions covering the most mandatory of procedures. One of these included non-violent crisis intervention.
Non-violent crisis intervention is just as it sounds like it would be: if a counselor sees that a client is on the upswing of a tantrum, an outburst, or an incident, he or she is responsible to intervene—in, of course, a non-violent manner. The idea or “trick” is to catch the person BEFORE he or she goes into a rage that will be self- or other-destructive.
So the practice sessions include role-playing. One person would be the aggressive one, another would be the counselor engaged in the altercation, and a third would play the one who demonstrated non-violent crisis intervention. One scenario went like this: the person started acting out. The counselor was coaching the upset one. The second counselor would gently move in—behind the client—put his/her arms about under and through the arms of the raging one, in a benign full nelson, and with the hands now at the nape of the client’s neck would stroke the head of the client, gently bringing the client to a seated position in the counselors lap/front. (The counselor is now also seated behind the client, still rubbing his head to calm him.)
The role-playing was fascinating and educational. But the kinds of non-violent crisis intervention we often needed to practice were much less staged (obviously), involved much more dangerous situations than someone just stamping his feet and yelling, and required much faster and different bodily responses. For example, I was cooking for the 12 boys one afternoon (which was the main part of my job then, as therapeutic cook). David, who was a schizophrenic with tons of energy usually, loved to hang out in the kitchen with me, sitting at the small table and watching and engaging me in conversation. He loved my imitations of people I had known, especially anyone who had a British accent or other dialect difference. He would do impersonations of my impersonations over and over.
But David also had an anger threshold problem. One day, he was in a pissy mood. In the kitchen, he sat at the table denying all our usual funny jokes and silly banter, discounting all as crap. He was depressed and hunting with eyes for excitement. I was boiling water in an industrial-sized teakettle for Jello™ or something, and I noticed that his eyes landed on many possibilities but furtively returned in glances at that teakettle. As he shifted in his chair, I lunged for teakettle, pouring it down the sink as my body blocked his from the sink and from reach of the kettle handle. This was far different form the non-violent crisis intervention role-playing scenarios, yet was real and urgent nonetheless.
And at least once a week we faced such calls for intervention. Cliff (who as a five-year-old stowed away under a bulkhead, watched as some freak murdered both his parents) would hammer and nail boards on his door and window of the room he stayed in at the house—from the INSIDE. Rudy (who was left in a dumpster as an infant), had a broken leg but insisted on going on the camping expedition which included a two-mile hike in to the site, and at one water break cut off his cast three weeks early and ran away. Larry, autistic at birth, would rock himself in a corner, banging his head until it was bloody, if no one stopped him in time. And Terry, Mark, and Roger all climbed to the roof of the Victorian where they resided, where, joined by the usual leader, Cliff, they hurled items down to hear them crash, responding with joyful imitations of chimpanzees and other primates.
So the crisis intervention sometimes went further than holding someone on your lap—especially when the someone was on a roof three stories up or boarded behind several two-by-fours.
For some adults, even in this recession, the perfect vacation is to find a five star hotel or beach where you can every whim catered to and every indulgence fulfilled. Others may seek a more family style excursion with amusement parks and theme parks. And yet others may opt for a cruise or other entertainment vacation. However there are those who desire to go “where no man has gone before”. There are those who enjoy walking on the wild side.
For these people, there exists adventure travel.
Adventure travel ideas run the gamut and may take you kayaking in Glacier Bay, Alaska. You may choose to go canoeing and camping in the boundary waters of Northern Minnesota. You may choose to travel the world always seeking the path less traveled. You may travel to the rainforests of the Amazon or the Sahara Desert. You may go on an African Safari or mountain climbing in Tibet.
Beginners can get started in adventure travel easily. Many places offer guided and equipped tours into adventure areas. Experienced outfitters can provide you with all the equipment and the guide you need to start in adventure travel. More experienced adventures may plan their own trips and use their own equipment.
Adventure travel may also include ecotravel or travel with a purpose. Perhaps your adventure travel vacation could include a visit to an African refugee camp or helping to feed the hungry in a third world nation.
Perhaps your adventure travel will take to you to South America visiting ruins of the ancient Aztec civilization. Maybe your adventure travel will take you to the pyramids of Egypt.
Adventure travel is about discovering something new. Perhaps the adventure is the sport and the activity such as kayaking, canoeing, camping, mountain climbing, hiking and more. But adventure travel is not limited to sport. Adventure travel includes adventures in science visiting the Antarctic or the Amazon rainforest. Adventure travel includes discovering history in the Middle East or South America. Adventure travel can take you into the depths of winter or into the heat of summer.
No matter where you go or what you do, adventure travel is all about traveling on the road less traveled, learning about the world, learning about other people and other cultures. Adventure travel can take you to the extremes. You can go to the most extreme and remote parts of the world. You can engage in extreme sports.
You can visit extreme history. Go live like Vikings in Rekjavik!
There are many travel agents available to help you plan your next adventure travel vacation. Don’t limit yourself. Climb Everest! Ride camels. You only live once.
I have managed to travel to many wonderful places in my years. I have yet to take an extravagant, luxury vacation but perhaps when I get older I will be able to splurge. Right now, I am more than happy with finding affordable travel deals that have taken me to many places. There are many places I am interested in visiting and have already marked several off of my list of “must see” places. How do I manage to travel so much? I do quite a bit of research and make sure that when I do decide on a travel location, I make sure I purchase an affordable travel package.
By doing extensive research on my own, I find that many vacation packages that are offered are very overpriced. Not to say that a travel agent cannot find you affordable travel, but sometimes you are able to save more when you look outside of the box. Travel agents and companies tend to only have so many resources. They use the same places over and over and don’t focus on some smaller rentals or hotels that may not be as luxurious as you desire, but just as wonderful. Affordable travel in exotic destinations can be found if you are willing to spend the time looking for it.
There are lots of places that are not so far away that can make for very affordable travel. Many people never bother to investigate what their own states offer for getaways. Some families want to vacation in the outdoors. There are many places that families can go camping and have a wonderful time. Amusement parks also make for local affordable travel options as well. Some of my best family vacations involved camping for a weekend near an amusement park. My sisters and I loved it because it meant we were getting away from home and were allowed to stay up late and roast marshmallows. Our parents loved it because if was an affordable travel option for a family with several children.
Affordable travel deals can be found through many different avenues. You may find that there is a wonderful vacation in store for you no more than an hour from your house. Or, you may find the right travel site at the right moment that is offering an affordable travel deal. As long as you know what your budget is and can be flexible to where you go and what affordable travel deals are available at the time, you could find yourself filling up a photo album with memories sooner than you think.
A growing number of active young men and women are dangerously overweight. As it becomes easier and easier to eat high fat and low nutrient food, it becomes easier to gain weight. There are many methods you should combine in losing weight in a healthy way.
Here’s Youtube Celebrity Weightloss Guru Steve Turano on the subject:
The obvious way, of course, is to eat less. Or you can try to improve your diet and eat better. Boosting metabolism is also an obvious way to lose weight, and many people do this through exercise.
Your metabolism is, basically, the rate at which your body uses the energy in food. In different people, natural metabolism is different. If you want to boost your metabolism there are several different approaches.
If you exercise your metabolism will slowly increase as the cells in your body consume more in order to keep themselves going. Exercise should be varied – muscle building will help by boosting metabolism as well as using up more calories in the long term, and aerobic exercise, which can even be just going for a short walk, will slowly build up a higher metabolism, as well as increasing all around health.
Another way of boosting metabolism which at first seems counter productive is to eat more. As in, eat more often.
If you eat below a certain amount of calories in a day, rather than boosting your metabolism, you are lowering it – cells start learning to survive on fewer calories, and no longer need as many calories.
This is sometimes called starvation mode. This mode is how your body would survive if there was a famine. Cells don’t work as well in starvation mode. This is why it is important to eat breakfast each day.
There are also certain foods which can help in boosting metabolism. Sugary foods do not help (these actually slow metabolism rather than speed it up), but spicy foods have been seen to help in weight loss by boosting metabolism.
Eating small, tasty, and healthy meals several times a day is the best approach when trying to lose weight.
Sleep and stress also affect your efforts at boosting metabolism. Stress slows your metabolism and releases steroids called cortisol into your body that cause your metabolism to slow, besides the fact that many dieters often want to eat more and unhealthy food when they become stressed.
Sleep is helpful in boosting metabolism. Eight or nine hours a night is best for most people. If you exercise on a regular basis your metabolism will actually function better.
Boosting metabolism is important because as people get older, metabolism inevitably slows down. By boosting metabolism, people keep their body fit and at optimum energy levels. So go out! Take a walk; actually take one three times a week for at least thirty minutes.
Africa is called the “Dark Continent” for its supposed mystery, but there is nothing mysterious about a destination site like this. You should definitely consider an Africa vacation.
Africa is probably the most diverse continent on the planet and a vacation there can hold just as much variety. No matter what you are looking for, an Africa vacation can fulfill all your trip desires.
We think of Africa first as a land of jungles and wild animals and that is certainly true. For an Africa vacation, you may want to consider some of the amazing safari adventures, which will take you to places that most people have only dreamed about. Imagine elephants and lions in the wild; that can be part of an Africa vacation. Although primitive in its beauty and feel, being on a safari does not mean living like an “animal”. Throughout the numerous game preserves and national parks, where you will see nature at its best, are also some of the finest accommodations in the world.
On your vacation, you can stay in guest lodges that rival anything in the cosmopolitan areas for luxury and service. Most of these venues will make you feel like you are a king or queen of all you survey, with excellent amenities you would not necessarily expect on an Africa vacation.
However, the jungles and savannas of Africa is only part of the picture. In South Africa, you can find hotels and resorts that rival any in Las Vegas or other showplace resorts. How about an Africa vacation that includes top line entertainment, casino gambling, unsurpassed beaches? All these are available for both singles and families, accommodating all types of budgets.
In the north, beautiful beach resorts dot the Mediterranean coast as well as the Red Sea. Here a vacation turns into a desert odyssey not unlike Palm Springs, California, except with miles of white sand beaches.
Africa is countless island resorts on the Indian Ocean too. An Africa vacation here could be a private bungalow at a small resort where fresh fish is caught for lunch literally outside the windows of your room. The waters in these areas are pristine and unspoiled, perfect for diving and sailing.
In the north west, Morocco and the Canary Islands beckon with a completely different atmosphere and style. In addition, an Africa vacation here on the Atlantic coast has a completely different environment and culture to experience. You might feel that you are in Monte Carlo or Cannes but with much less expense and a more relaxing atmosphere.
An Africa vacation can be just about what you want it to be, with a variety that you will not find anywhere else.
Most of us have taken a travel trip sometime or the other in our lives.
When we are studying in College and have time and good health, the coolest way to spend time can be in Adventure travel. If you are game for it.
‘Adventure Travel’ this is a new way to travel that is not just popular among the youth and those whose veins are filled with adrenaline, but even among ordinary people. But College gives us the time and inclination.
It is not really difficult to fathom why. Regular travel, has, over the years gotten boring and predictable. With the prices of airfare coming steadily down and package tours becoming more common than ever before, conventional travel has become stifling, overcrowded and boring. The sense of adventure that is usually associated with travel has become obsolete. Until adventure travel came on the scene that is. With adventure travel, travel ca once more become that exalted activity that brings us in touch with new cultures and people and broadens our horizons. The very raison de etre for adventure travelis unique experiences – something that all of us, irrespective of our personal preference of travel, want!
A sample adventure travel trip for instance could offer you a very unique way of seeing an otherwise popular destination. Now, most people you and I know have been on a Caribbean travel trip. They would have visited the same old beaches, stayed in the same old hotels, driven along the same old roads and seen the same old touristy sights. But sample what an adventure travel trip to the Caribbean could offer. You could take an eco-trek through the Caribbean rain forests, you could see the birds, the insects and the animals up close, you could camp with the local inhabitants and learn more about them, their costumes, their food and their culture by actually interacting with them and you could discover the joys of virtually deserted, unspoiled beaches. All of this while being relatively close to the popular tourist destinations, yet away from the humdrum and drab experiences.
Or imagine an adventure travel trip to Australia. While most travelers do the staid, old, boring city hop across the continent, you could, as part of your adventure travel trip, balloon your way across the continent, snorkel in the great barrier reef, share a billy with a jolly swagman and waltz with mathilda and a joey or two in the bush country! Doesn’t the adventure travel option sound like more fun when compared to the regular travel option?
It is precisely to cater to this need for a unique and interesting travel experience that the genre of adventure travel came into existence. And adventure travel is not a genre that is restricted to the teens and tweens.
Increasingly, older adults are opting to go on adventure travel trips. And they are having more fun, learning much more and reliving their experiences at every given opportunity, much to the envy and consternation of regular travelers. You too could be the one to go on an adventure travel trip. The only thing stopping you is your imagination!
] Anyway, this is what I do: I think of the material/topic I will be speaking on; I realize how much I love the subject; and I focus on my love for the subject. I trick myself, that is, into shifting my focus from how I will speak to what I will speak on…forgetting all about being afraid! [Screw that “imagine the audience in their underwear” thing. I am not sure that works anymore.]
Recent Comments