College Life, Week 2

Well, one more week has passed on the Olivet campus here in Bourbonnais, Illinois, and I have a few more observations about college life. This week, I'm going to give some tips about staying in touch with home while also being heavily involved in campus life:

  1. Whatever you do, stay in touch with your family. No, you don't have to call them everyday, even if they'd like you to. However, even if you only call once a week, they'll appreciate it a ton. Besides, it can be nice to see how things are going at home. Make sure you set aside time to call home, and respond to any texts you get. Don't shun your family. And especially...
  2. Don't let the first thing that tells them how you're doing be your blog. Oops. Didn't do a great job here. Sorry Mom. 
  3. Keep in touch with at least a few good friends from high school. I haven't done a great job of this yet, mostly because there's an asterisk to this one: don't get stuck with doing so. If you spend all your time talking to friends from high school, you won't make as good of friends at college. If they live in the room next to you, that's a different story; but don't spend all your time calling home. Trust me when I say that they'll understand. 
  4. Learn to say no to some things you really want to do. This one is especially hard for me, and I'm learning my lesson now. I decided to get involved with a theater production on campus. I don't regret doing that; however, I do regret saying that I would be as involved in it as I am now. It's sucking most of my nights away, as I've had to say no to other things that I really wanted to do. As a result, I'm taking the rest of the year off of theater: not because I don't love it, because I do, but because I want to do other music things (read: worship music) even more. 
  5. Pour yourself into whatever you do get involved in. Yes, I know I just said to say no to some things; but when you say yes, pour yourself into it. Even if you only have a small role in a campus organization, do whatever you can to be as amazing as you can be in your role. This will leave a more lasting impression than you biting off more than you can chew and doing it just adequately. Do what you have time for, but devote yourself during that time. 
That's it for this week. Be sure to stay tuned for more observations about campus life next Saturday, as well as a couple new album reviews during the next week. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Image
What is the Jurassic Park franchise, and what should it be? Those two questions are sitting at the front of my mind the morning after watching the fifth installment in this series, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom . Sleeping on this movie was not a good idea; instead of being ambivalent as I was last night, I am now deeply concerned that this franchise is not going to continue being one of my more anticipated summer movie events as it has been for both this film and Jurassic World . The predominant problem with watching Fallen Kingdom is structure and pacing. It appears like two separate movies were put together end to end and played as the final product. The first half revolves around getting the dinosaurs off the island of Isla Nublar, saving the animals from its active volcano, while the second half turns into a gothic horror-esque monster movie that is tonally inconsistent by itself. These distinct aesthetics and tones make the finished film nothing more than a bridge b...
Read more

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Image
This is a rare occasion for me. I don’t think The Greatest Showman is a good movie, but I did enjoy watching it most of the time. It’s not a guilty pleasure; it’s more like a sugary, rich dessert that doesn’t strike me as inventive or unique but also doesn’t make me sick of its richness. What does this, no doubt, are the musical numbers. They took me out of The Greatest Showman in the best way possible. Let’s be real: this movie doesn’t know what character development is. It doesn’t know how to craft a compelling story. What it does know how to do is tell a story through music, and for that reason it’s actually quite tolerable to a fan of musicals like myself. It’s not just that the music itself is good; the numbers are filmed well in their own right. They are choreographed and shot quite competently, and the vocal performances are excellent as well. My personal favorites were “Rewrite the Stars,” “The Other Side,” and the likely Oscar contender “This Is Me.” There’s o...
Read more

Jurassic World (2015)

Image
Somehow, some way, Jurassic World  is both one of my most anticipated films of the year and one of the most surprising. The anticipation shouldn't be hard to grasp: I remember seeing the original Jurassic Park  on VHS when I was give or take 8 years old. I fell in love with it immediately and even more so when last summer I saw it on the big screen for the first time at my local arthouse. So, where did the skepticism come from? Well, as I saw more and more material come from Jurassic World , I kept thinking (and hearing from others) that it looked more and more like a mindless CG crapfest similar to the Transformers  franchise...or Jurassic Park III . Thankfully, the 14 years we've waited for a fourth Jurassic Park  film were well worth the wait. Not only is Jurassic World  visually entertaining and thrilling, it also captures a lot of the magic of the original film. The majority of this magic comes from the story. The "too long; didn't read" version...
Read more