Things You Wish Someone Told
You When You Were An Undergrad
by Ramon P. Corteza III
When you were an undergrad, you wished someone had told you how young you really were. It’s easy to feel mature, but to a certain extent, you’re not — we’re not. Somehow, we’re still 16 to 22-year-olds, experimenting with newfound freedoms and embracing them with reckless abandon. You wish someone warned you when you were getting too far ahead of yourself in those experiments. That you still had a hell of a lot to learn and experience. And that you didn’t have to sprint pass through the streets of time, only to come back strolling down the memory lane because you missed your childhood ways.
When you were an undergrad, you wish someone told you that right and wrong was not divided by the Great Wall of China into white and black; that to be open-minded you had to look in shades of gray. And that at times, in order to understand someone, you need to remember that each of us carries some form of baggage, and hides some number of skeletons in their closets. God knows you’ve had your fair share of them.
When you were an undergrad, you wish someone told you that it’s alright to take risks in every which way possible. That living life on the edge is better than not living life at all. That asking yourself “why not?” today is better than being haunted by “what if” tomorrow. So drown your inhibitions (not necessarily with alcohol) and just do it because impossible is nothing.
When you were an undergrad, you wish someone said to you that it’s alright to fail. That some fights, no matter how hard you train for them, will end up in a loss. That not passing an exam because an emergency came up or that you simply needed to catch up on sleep is a perfectly valid excuse. That shit happens. That flunking a subject or two, and even more, is not the end of the world. And that the mere fact that failure is the penultimate of the pathway to success should be reason enough to keep you going.
When you were an undergrad, you wish someone told you that some bridges will be burned out of necessity. That some, you will burn yourself, while others will be incinerated without your consent. That not all departures will be as gentle as their approaches; and that the important thing to remember is that our failed relationships — whether platonic or romantic — need not define who we are or who we choose to be.
When you were an undergrad, you wish someone told you sooner how to differentiate melodrama from drama, so you could have directed apathy into the former instead of the latter. That the latter’s ebb and flow comes in sporadic and unknowable intervals. And that despite the hysteria that comes with the plot of our lives, it’s still okay because happiness was, is, and always will be a choice. Ultimately, you wished someone had told you earlier that happiness can be like air; somehow all around you yet invisible. Only when you fan it to ourselves and others, do you need not wait for the breeze to feel it. ‘Things You Wish Someone Told You When You Were An Undergrad’ by Ramon P. Corteza III was first published in the 2012 edition of Waywaya.
