If I let this opportunity to make a pun about using this story for The MIRROR as an opportunity to REFLECT slip through my fingers I will never forgive myself. With that in mind, I present to you some highlights of what I learned and didn't learn in college.
I learned:1. What it means to try new things. It took me a really long time to realize that doing things that I know I like but just doing a college version of them isn't the same as actually trying something new. Pong may be the human to Beirut's chimpanzee, but let's face it they're all primates. I've loved the activities and academics that I've taken on here that built on my previous experiences, but it's unbelievably refreshing to do something for the very first time and be just as bad at it as you expected (or unexpectedly good at it for that matter). 2. Ben Folds puts it best in his song title "There's always someone cooler than you." I had some sense of this when I entered college. But when I met Tom Bonamici '07 who worked with a local timber framer to design shelters for the Appalachian Trail, I knew for sure that any time I'm thinking too highly of myself I needn't look far for a compelling reason to take myself down a peg. (Note: this seems like an obvious lesson but I can think of a number of people here who could still stand to brush up on it). 3. Two dances the Salty Dog Rag and the Soulja Boy. Who knew that a tinny recording of a ragtime fiddle or three emphatic beats on a steel drum could get me out of my seat and bouncing around so jubilantly? I can't say that I'm proud of my enthusiasm for Crank Dat, but if my parents' dream of having me navigate this world with no pop cultural influence (aside from that which I receive from PBS) is going to be broken, it might as well be shattered
I didn't learn:1. Anything absolutely definitive. Yes, I know the saying "the more you know, the less you understand." Even so, I feel like the thesis of most of the classes I've taken have been along the lines of "this is what we think we know now, but it will probably change or mean something different or we'll find a new way to look at it in the future." It would have been nice to come away from my undergraduate education with a few more impressive tidbits I'd feel totally confident whipping out at a dinner party in 20 years.2. What the best thing is to do with money (if I ever get any). I know neither to give it to Bernie Madoff and more generally, to steer clear of Ponzi schemes unless I'm running them. But other than that, the only thing I know to do with my current meager earnings is squander them on coffee in town and extremely generous donations to the town of Hanover in the form of hundreds of dollars of parking tickets. Here I am ready to embark in the world, attempt to make a living for myself and ironically I couldn't tell you the meaning of the phrase "personal finance" if you offered to pay me.3. How to write an article that isn't at least somewhat cliche in the form of a list.And there you have it. Regarding my reflection in The Mirror I guess all there is to say is, here's lookin' at you kid.
