Eastern Illinois University Top Questions

Dear Megan, I know you think life is tough, but don’t worry! Everything will soon get much harder. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” will become your mantra in college as soon as you figure how to “get going” you’ll love it! Speaking of love, wearing your heart on your sleeve isn’t a bad thing; however, don’t give it to the first person who notices you. He does not appreciate your worth like he claims. There is a man that sees the best in you and he’s just as excited to meet you as you are to meet him, so don’t be afraid of becoming the stereotypical crazy single lady with twenty cats. Keep an understanding perspective when it comes to your best friends. Eventually, all of you will branch apart and form bonds with other people and before you know it, you’re strangers. Remember it is no one’s fault, priorities, and people, change after high school. Never worry about having regrets. You’ll work too hard and have too little time to fathom the concept of regret. Welcome change. Life would be boring without it. Love, Your Self

I would tell senior year Lauren that even though people seem to be your best friend now, does not mean they will be in a year or two. Senior year, I lost one of closest friends to rekindle a friendship with my "best friend." The close friend left me due to not liking the other girl and we started to hate each other. At the time, I did not care because I thought my best firend and I would be friends forever. That changed one night, she told me she did not want to be my friend anymore and that I was a horrible person. I was devested. I went and talked to the close friend again and rekindled our friendship and we stayed friends and kept the past in the past. I am glad because just a few days ago, that close friend passed away in a tragic accident. I regret leaving her for my suposed "best friend", but we rekindled our friendship and everything was great when she passed away. Senior year Lauren needs to know though only a handful of high school friends will stay in her life, and they are the people she will least expect.

I would tell my high school self to not care so much about what people think of me and to not give into the drama. My time in high school was drama filled and I cared way too much about what people thought of me. I hated my four ears of high school because I was constantly dealing with drama. I would also tell high school self to have a better social life. I was a competative dancer so I didn't have much time to do things other than dance. I regret not having much time to spend with my friends.

When graduating high school, it seems like nothing could top those four years that you spent with your "best friends". You feel like you've really grown up and become your own person, but don't let that attitude keep you from really experiencing college. High school is great, and you will always be able to come home and relive those memories, but college is when you fully learn who you are. You learn what it is like to live on your own and resolve problems on your own without your parents, and where you will meet your true best friends. Your best friends becomes the people you literally spend every waking and sleeping moment with, and who all live within walking distance. When you go to college, go with an open mind, willing to learn new things, meet new people, and broaden your horizons. If you go in with a closed mind, you're going to miss out and regret so much. Open up and welcome new experiences, because the four years you spend in college are the four years that you're seriously going to look back on and wonder how you let slip past you so quickly.

The idea of going back in time to talk to my previous self is a thought that I have entertained many a time through my adult life. When I was 18 I was in a whirlwind and completely unprepared for what was going to happen in my life, more worried about playing sports than truly pondering my future education. I would tell myself never to give up something until you complete it; because I gave up on basketball halfway through my freshman year of college even though I had been awarded a full scholarship to play. The other thing I would tell myself is to maintain your present relationships but not to let a current romantic relationship make decisions that are so life altering so early in life. This girlfriend is not worth sacrificing your collegiate life over. Finally I would tell myself to really buckle down on your grades, I am currently digging myself out of the hole I put myself in when I was 19 years old. Focus get it done right the first time, never give up, and never let someone else dictate your life. The most important being NEVER GIVE UP or you live with regret!

They all say hind sight is 20/20, and boy is it. I would most defintaly have a long drawn out conversation with myself. I may have to yell because chances are my former self would not be listening. A few quick notes would be stay awake!, take things more seriously you have the rest of your life to have fun which is much easier to do with a career that enjoy instead of a job that you despise. Dont be afraid to presue a career in something that you enjoy despite of backlash from your peers. there is another old cliche that sounds corny but may be true "find a job you enjoy and you will never work a day in your life". While this may sound like a strecth you may never know if you dont go for it. And lastly i know a few more years of school now seem daunting and like a slow form of torture it will be much easier now than ten years down the road. Get through the "hard" times now and you can spend the rest of your life with a smile on your face and no regrets in your mind.

"Bridget, this is you 4 years later. There are some things you need to know before you embark on this journey". What would the wise self tell my 18 year -old self? I would tell myself 3 things. Advice number one: get an internship. The fact that I had no real experience after I graduated really affected me when it came time to find a job. Make sure you get as much internship experience as you can! It sounds so simple but yet so immensly important. Advice number two: don't forget about your family and friends. I really strained some of my most important familial relationships thanks to selfish perspective I had in college. Yes, college is about you and your education but do not act surprised when your those relationshiops have turned distant and cold. Future self advice number three: college will be the best time of you life. Do not start the countdown to graduation. Believe it or not, your college years will be filled with one worry: grades. Post-graduation your worries will include everything from job performance stress to learning how to file taxes. Enjoy the best time of your life!

I would give my self the advice of allowing the myself to first enjoy high school and the time I had there. Then I would say tell myself that I need to relax and not worry about my grades as much. I would tell myself that everything is going to be okay and I will have a future once I graduate from this college. Also, I would tell myself not to choose the major I did @ Eastern becuase even though it was easy, it did not lead me anywhere after I graduated. I would allow myself to also choose a major such social work with a B.A. I would also give myself the advice of trying to get to know more people @ Lincoln and Eastern. I feel that I did not broaden myself enough while I was there.

I would start with pay attention your senior year. Slacking in your high schools years may not seem bad while you'r doing it but if i can take it all back now I would pay more attention then I ever did. Also going into college your teachers dont force you to do your classwork nor homework. You do it if you want to and if you dont you get a zero, no excuses. If you want to be in class you go to class, if not its your choice. Your teacher is no longer your baby sitter, you are now entering a different world were you learn how to be an adult and do things on your own. A very exciting expirience if you ask me!

I would tell myself this: don't worry so much about fitting in! Little did my seventeen-year-old self know, one of the hardest things I would have to face in college was not the difficult workload but learning to fit into the social dynamics of a school attended mostly by people from Chicago or small-town Illinois who had their own culture and way of doing things; being from a DoDDS school in South Korea, I was used to bumping elbows with people from a diverse variety of backgrounds and was unprepared for being excluded by some groups of people because I am "just not from around here," as a friend of mine put it, and did not grow up with the same social customs as many people from this school have. Being different is fine, but being excluded because of your differences is hard. I would assure myself that all was not lost, that it is a fact of life that I won't jibe with everyone and that sooner or later, I would find people with whom I fit in, a group in which I would find myself as comfortable as an egg in its shell.