School - Not Just For Saps!

I’m nearing the end of a long stretch- 11/2 years of college, 1 1/2years of upgrading before that. So what have I been spending all that time, money and energy doing? Learning to live in the “real” world of course!
At the risk of sounding lame, I’ve compiled a list the top ten things I’ve learned that I’d like to share:

1) Things are ALWAYS easier with a teacher/mentor to show you how to do it.
2) Don’t look at the big picture, look at the small picture, i.e.: divide a large pie into smaller pieces. It makes doing a big project much easier.
3) The agenda/planner is your best friend. Keep organized and write absolutely everything in it. Then you don’t have to try to remember things, you just look in your book. A no-brainer.
4) Prioritize your “To Do” list. You do have a “To Do” list don’t you?
5) Be aware of the deadline on everything. Sometimes you have to hand in shoddy work to meet deadlines. So choose which projects are most important, spending the most time on those first.
6) Being on time and (bodily) present is more than 50% of the grade!
7) The other 50% is checking off point by point what they’re asking for on the assignment sheet. No-brainer here either.
8) Working in a group of peers is usually difficult. Everyone has their own idea of what works, you’ll usually have to compromise.
9) Every teacher has a different way/value of teaching because everybody has different values. Some stress the rules, others creativity, others visual, audio, ect.
10) So you have to live your own life according to your own terms and values too. In the end you learn the rules so you can break em.

Spending all that time in school is supposed to teach you how to live in the “real” world. As a fish in a school, I’m almost ready to move out of my tank into the shallows of the Big Wide Ocean. Hawaii here I come!