After College 101: Welcome First Steps

Welcome First Steps

During the graduation ceremony, you may hear the speaker say, “You are the cream of the crop, the champions of the world; the world is your oyster, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.” While these are great words to hear, they are just not true but hey its graduation and everything is to be positive. The truth of the matter is now you are on your own and its time to play the reality game. Where is Vanna White when you need her?

This column “Life after College 101” gives you the reader a head's up to avoid making a bunch of mistakes and end up living on the streets in front of the educational institution from which you graduated. Life is hard and it never gets easy, but do not become discourage we are here to help you with life experiences, and possible solutions that may help and steer your life in the right direction.

How are you building your future? Many people will spend their time in college, partying and may dropped out of school. If partying is your game plan, you had better plan to be broke and homeless unless Bill Gates is your daddy. The more you party in college the less partying you’ll be able to do after college and the less partying and more studying you do in college the more partying you’ll be able to do after college, many cannot understand this paradigm.

The football team plans game strategies but even the best laid out plans will never work unless you execute those plans and that is one of the secrets of having a stable and beneficial life. The Holy Scriptures says a wise man or woman looks well into, the direction they are heading and build their lives on a solid foundation built on G-D, etc.

Matthew 7:24 – 27 24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

Let us start with the first steps into college, which is choosing a degree program. While the income of a job may include enough money to have a very comfortable lifestyle, you may hate the job. Do not go into an occupation or degree program to make money rather, go into a degree program, and occupation because you have passion in that particular field. You may enjoy the high paychecks but eventually the work will hang on you like lead weights. Many go through life in an occupation they hate while they enjoy the large paychecks but despise the job. Life is too short to go to a job that you grind your teeth at and become bitter.

During the first year, many just take requirement courses and not declare a major until the start of the sophomore year. This allows you the time to find your niche in life and the direction you want to go.

Do not go with the flow; but rather discover your niche, talents and future, building upon them to become a productive member of society.

I know that many of these nuggets of wisdom are too late for many but its still food for thought. In the following entries, I will include ways of pitfall avoidance. If you have, any questions please email them to RabbiDale@yahoo.com and I will answer as many as I can, thank you.

Till next time,
Mazal Tov,
Rabbi Dale Life after College 101©2007 by Rabbi Dale