I still find it unbelievable that senior year has arrived. The days queuing for midnight Bo burgers on North Campus and getting nervous over my first prelim are now history, and I can finally say that I have a bit of advice for incoming freshmen. So here in this blog, I have laid down a few things I wish I knew three years ago.
1. Really, really read all the options that are available to you as a freshman. Many research opportunities and scholar positions only take in freshmen, so go to those info sessions and get to know what you can do right now. Freshmen have the great benefit of having a record free of blemishes, so really do take advantage of this blank page.
2. Take that year (semester) abroad. As much as I have liked Cornell, there was a tiny part of me that wishes I were somewhere else when Spring 2014 in Ithaca averaged a temperature of 0F till April. A year abroad means you perhaps will be immersing yourself in a different language, which is in my opinion the most effective way to master a foreign tongue. A year abroad also means – without regular academic pressure – many impromptu trips around different countries, which might be your best memories from your twenties!
3. One or two clubs is enough. Three, tops. Whether it is for career-building for meeting new people, if you really invest your time and work entirely into one or two organizations and build on constantly it throughout the years, it is hard for your finishing result to be unsatisfactory.
4. It is okay to not immediately know what you are going to do with your life in your freshman/sophomore year of college, as long as you are in the process of actively figuring it out. By actively I mean that you are going and taking different classes to test out your interests, taking a bit of time to talk to a careers counselor to pinpoint your best abilities, or seeking out a professor/professional who may mentor you throughout your college years. It is really quite fine to be undecided for a while, as long as you are in the process of becoming progressively more decided.
As a graduating Cornell student, I can say honestly that I have learned incredible things in this university, and that I have great memories from those years in dear old Ithaca – rainy and cold as they sometimes may well be. However, as life always has its little compromises, I do sometimes play the “what-if” game and wonder what would happen if I had chosen to do A over B, and how differently life would have turned out. The trick with “what-if”s though, is that we are all probably asking ourselves in parallel universes “what-if”s too. So to incoming freshmen, just remember to live as free of regret as possible. Quoting Conan O’Brien: “Work hard, be kind, amazing things will happen.”