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On Friday, I was invited to be a senior volunteer for an event at our Asian-American Cultural Center called “What I Wish I Knew My Freshman Year.” And so to prepare, I came up with a list of ten things I had learned since freshman year. In talking about my experiences so far and answering the freshmen questions about those experiences, I discovered that I still don’t fully follow these tips myself. In any case, here they are:
1. Be true to yourself. Do what makes you happy, not what others say you should do.
2. Be genuine, be reliable. The relationships you form at Yale can potentially last a lifetime, so make sure they’re built the right way.
3. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. The fear of making a mistake takes away opportunities. Instead, make the mistakes and look back and learn from them.
4. Trust your intuition. Don’t stress about the details or over-think the possibilities. Life has its way of working out.
5. Learn how to say “no.” You can’t do everything, so choose the things that mean the most to you.
6. Don’t be too attached and insular. You don’t truly discover who you really connect with until later, so meet new people.
7. Ask for help if you need it. The people around you are more willing to help than you think, so don’t feel like you have to do everything by yourself. The opposite it true as well: don’t hesitate to offer help.
8. Get to know professors! They actually want to meet you, and do care about your life.
9. Party hard, but party smart. Fun times aren’t very fun if you can’t remember them.
10. Don’t forget your family and friends back home. You might want to rush forward with your life, but they’re the only ones who will catch you when you fall.
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