Four years of wisdom
COMMENTARY
Jordan Blum

Well, graduation is nearly here, and I’ve barely had a second to figure out what’s next.

So far the cliché that college is the best four years of your life has rung true, and it’s a difficult thought to realize that it’ll soon be just a memory.

I’ve made my share of mistakes that I know of and some that are a little hazy, but I managed to learn a lot in between and keep my regrets to a minimum.

Your first year in college is interesting to say the least. Flip-flops for the showers in Milton Daniel quickly become your most valued possession.

Also, make sure you don’t have a 6-foot-5-inch resident assistant who seems to enjoying showering in the neighboring stall while looking over the top and trying to have a conversation. There’s just something inherently wrong with that scenario.

Most importantly, don’t follow my example and waste your freshman year trying to stay with your high school girlfriend, who is a seven-hour drive away. It’s just not good logic.

Transition periods can also be strange and awkward in college, as is this transition in my column.

For instance, my roommate during my first semester at TCU was a good friend of mine, at the time. But as it stands now, I haven’t seen him in three years and he could have fallen off the face of the Earth for all I know.

Also, here’s an example of conversations with some of my best friends from my first two years in college:

“What’s up?”

“How ya doin’?”

(Insert a moment of awkward silence here.)

“Later.”

“See ya.”

Wow, now that’s some profound and spiritual bonding right there.

Unfortunately, I’ll consider it a success if I can stay in touch with about 10 people from TCU long past my graduation. After all, there are probably about 50 people on my AOL buddy list from TCU whom I no longer chat with. Yet, I keep there names there anyway just to make me look popular.

TCU isn’t a perfect place by any means either. It’s very cliquish and there’s very little diversity (sorry Ray Brown). Students can be very superficial and there’s a definite lack of school pride.

But I’ll never regret my decision to attend TCU and the positives outweigh all the generic crap we all love to complain about along the way.

Now here are some more random thoughts.

Be sure to study abroad at some point. Even if you don’t think you can afford it, it’ll be worth it in the long run. No other time in your life will you get the chance to parasail off the Alps, run with the bulls and join a bunch of Turkish soccer fans rioting after a World Cup victory in Paris during a one-month span.

I feel guilty about using send home to buy a Coke out of the drink machines every day.

Don’t buy your books until a week through each semester to make sure you’ll need them, and even then it’s a toss up to buy them or not.

I think my favorite thing about graduating is I’ll never eat in The Main again.

If your neighbors call the cops on you for being too loud and say they feel threatened for their lives, then screw them.

Also, when I was a freshman I promised myself I’d swim in Frog Fountain (bacteria be damned) before graduating ... hmm.

Finally, be sure to balance your work and play, because focusing solely on one or the other will lead to a ton of regrets and missed opportunities.

And make sure you appreciate great moments when they occur as the lasting memories they will become.

News editor Jordan Blum is a graduating senior biochemical engineering and water polo major from New Orleans. He can be reached at (j.d.blum@tcu.edu).