Tips for Fresh-folk

The puddle has filled up, mostly with little froggies who were scrawny tadpoles until a week ago. As I am about to turn 21, and am going through my annual old phase I'll disperse some advice I've learned during my time in the puddle (which by no means is coming to an end, as I'm on the 5+ year plan).

1. Realize that you are a small frog in a BIG sea. Deal with it. Find a smaller puddle to get involved in. You are still small, but the sea just got way, way smaller and the splash you can make just got way, way bigger.
2. Listen to people. Everyone has an intersting story, find out what it is.
3. Be wary of someone who immediatly tries to get you involved in their cause, without getting to know you first.
4. Join a group, find a cause you care about, even if it doesn't have the most glamourous table on Sproul.
5. Don't buy books at Ned's or the ASUC store. Check what books you need, write down the ISBN, and buy them used off of Amazon, eCampus, Half.com or anywhere else you can find them. No waiting in line, cheaper prices, and the books come right to your door. Cons? It may take you a few extra days to get everything together.
6. When it comes time to move out of the dorms, move in with people you get along with but do not over-lap with your social life. This makes coming home interesting and minimizes opportunities to fight.

Suffocation

It is easy to toot your own horn. I'm sure every froggie reading this believes they are good at what they do. In fact, this may as well be true. I hope all the frogs find something they enjoy and are good at to be involved in.

But, sometimes others can ruin the tooting. The worse is when they unintentionally rain on your parade. These are the frogs who make you feel crappy about yourself without intending or wanting to. You may even be friends with these frogs.

I'm not writing this to bitch or to bore you. There is a frog out there who I have in mind while typing these lines. This frog is the main reason I started this blog, (although later on I scratched it and started fresh). This frog is one of my closest friends in the puddle and I place great value on our friendship. That being said, there are times when this frog can be unbearable.

You may ask... why don't I leave the relationship? Well, that's a good question. No doubt those of you who recognize the situation in your far-away puddles have additional insight I don't wish to blog about. The answer is plain and simple, yet complicated. This is a frog I love, and generally enjoy being with. They, like any other frog, have faults to be dealt with. Can I learn to live with the feeling of irrelevance when this frog's attention is taken up by electronics? It hurts.

This summer, I reassessed my life. Yes, it was hard, but it was also easy. 5,000 miles away, I reached a sort of clarity. I suddenly realized what I liked in my life, and what I was determined to change. Perhaps, despite all the fun times had, this is something calling for change this upcoming year. But, as I said, it is not that simple.

Solitaire, Not the Game

It has been an interesting week in the puddle. Our hero has not had much to do, which is a concept she is not too familiar with. After re-settling into her lilypad, she is now working a bit, as to make a few extra $$ before school starts. She would have considered this time a lonely one, except for the change of mind she had over the summer.

In the far-away puddle there is a beautiful frog, a princess. This wonderful creature is our hero's best friend in the world, and shall be known as Tzur in this blog. Tzur does many special things that make our hero so helplessly in love with her. (One clarification, in the unlikely event my mom is reading this: I'm not gay.) One thing out of many that makes her the exceptional princess that she is is the solitary trips she will take, whether to another city, in nature or to be a shepherd for a week. She needs to get away in order to stay sane.

This past summer, our hero has learned the luxury of time alone. This is much more than having a room to yourself; it is taking time off and removing one’s self from society. How often do we truly find ourselves alone?

A few days ago I decided to have a go, and went for a swim in the far end of the puddle alone. The water was cool, the sun was shining and our hero was fully equipped with water, food and cookies (she’s not called Cookie Goddess for nothing). At one point she decided to swim away from the main stream, and wander off for a bit. One thing led to another, and following a little episode in which her life flashed before her eyes, our hero returned home with joy in her heart and a rash on her hand. After a shower, call to the poison control center and some rest, our hero evaluated her little excursion.

One thing was clear: what happened out there could have perhaps been avoided, but given the circumstances, our hero dealt with it. She conquered it herself, succeeded through her own efforts. She was up against the world, and the score is now 1-0 to her.

Take some time off, go take a walk alone, it’s an unbeatable experience.