Ok so now what?

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to speak to some high school seniors from my 'alma mater' at Bellevue West. I've remained good friends with one of my teachers from that time, and have come back a few times while I was in college to talk to her classes or work on other projects to facilitate high-school/university relations. I even went back and did some recruiting things at Bellevue West. Part of me says I'm being a good alumnus, but mostly it's because I love talking to younger students and I like to help out my teacher and my friend.

It seems open-ended, and I blogged about it in my last post, but I believe the focus of my talk is to relate my life/college experiences after high school and to offer whatever advice I may have. So I'll be using this blog to organize some thoughts, but moreover, I'm seeking feedback, suggestions, or slap-in-the-face reminders of what I could have missed.

So here are my points of advice that I'll start with tomorrow:

• Keep your eyes and mind wide open
  Ok, so this one seems cliche, but I can think of my first weekend at college. There was so much stuff to take in. I thought I did an ok job of trying to absorb it all, but thinking back, I had a girlfriend to distract me and my own social agenda to fulfill. That first weekend was truly a blast, and I still think it should be. However, it is also really important to start learning about your environment and setting your sights beyond the clique you came with or the booze you can't wait to consume.
  
  At UNL, Big Red Welcome is pretty much designed to do just that. Nearly every organization on campus comes out and hands you free crap in hopes that you'll sign up of something. It took me a couple of years to realize that most of the stuff I picked up I never used or looked at again, but it's a good way to pick up chow and find out what is going on at the University.
  
  Beyond that first weekend, college to me has been about humbling myself to realize I can't possibly know everything and knowing that I was there to learn. Keeping an eye out for new opportunities to challenge myself, learn something new, and growing as a person proved to be an important skill.
  


• If it seems stupid, go learn more about it
  There are a lot of things I think are just plain crap. One thing I learned over the years is that things I used to think were worthless became more valuable as I grew older. Today, if I find myself something is complete crap, I stop and ask myself if I understand it. Have I really taken the time to peer into something and justify my declaration of something as worthless?
  
  I thing we fear or hate that which we don't understand. However, when we to stop to see if we can find value in something, we open ourselves up to a wealth of new value in our life experiences. The same can be true of college or other post-high school experiences. If I thought a way of doing things or an idea was stupid, I found a book or took a class about it. If after the class I find it's still stupid, then I feel satisfied knowing I diligently investigated the issue and I know I've exercised my mind in doing so. In my experience, I came out of things valuing that which I previously thought was stupid more often than not. It seems there is a lot more to learn about life if we only put some effort into seeing its value.
  
  Obviously, there is some discretion in this point. My dad likes to put it "I don't need to jump off a building to know it's not a good idea," and he is totally right. With all things come balance. With all decisions comes a critical evaluation and a weighing of benefits. The same can be said with where how we decide to experience life. Be sure to investigate things intelligently rather than stretch yourself too thin or otherwise harm yourself.
  


• Read, Read, Read
  Having access to information is so easy these days and it is amazing. One of the things I am most excited for now that I am done with school is the ability to kick back and read when I want to. Libraries and book stores are a great place to start and there are plenty of them in Lincoln.
  
  The Internet has made getting information easy as well. If you don't have a Google Reader account or some other RSS aggregator, you should get one. If you want to learn more about finance, seek out financial blogs. If you're excited about city development, see if your city council or some other organization has a blog. It is ridiculously easy to start learning about so many things by following blogs.
  
  Another important thing for college kids is to learn to read the newspaper or watch the news regularly. College can be a fairly isolating community. Now that seems like an odd thing to say, but I remember I was oblivious to the Katrina hurricane because I got so wrapped up in college life my freshman year. Make sure you stay in touch with the rest of the world. Set Yahoo News as your home page. Make it a habit to take a newspaper with you to lunch. Do what it takes to become an informed citizen. I think it's part of growing up and life after high school is a good place to start.
  


• "Eat like a Bird, Poop like an Elephant"
  I've written about this quote before, but I just love it. Birds supposedly eat a ridiculous amount compared to their body mass. Likewise, we should be taking in disproportionately large amounts of information. However, one thing I don't like about college is that students can be tricked into becoming leeches. There is never a push to cycle the information, process it, and create some kind of useful output.
  
  The latter half of the quote seems fairly obvious. If we take in a lot, we should output a lot. This is beneficial both for the individual and for those around them. Be an effective channel of information. Doing so will teach you to communicate effectively and it will solidify concepts in your mind as you teach them to others.
  


• Learn about Leadership
  
When I got to college, I had come from the top of my class and entered into a community where everybody else was at the top of their classes. We were competitive. We all figured we were the best; each figured he or she was a leader. To us, being a leader was about technical proficiency, wrangling every problem into submission, and being better than everybody in the room.

I can't say I was any different when I started, but my view on leadership has evolved since then. I have to say it really changed the way I work with people, how I view myself in the workforce, and how I view others that with whom I work. I learned that being the best in everything isn't necessarily possible, but to be able to inspire others to bring their best to the task at hand and leverage the strengths of the group is a true skill. I'm probably still working on that today.

This is huge. Learn what leadership really is. It's not about what color personality you have. It's not about finding some label to excuse your behavior, or even taking a test. I think there is a positive correlation between maturity and effectiveness as a leader because I certainly discounted everything I learned in leadership classes when I was a freshman. I took another class with some overlapping material as a senior and it blew me away how much more it meant at that point.

If a student is going to UNL, I recommend they find some way to take a class with Dr. Colleen Jones, and hopefully she can point them in the right direction.


• Don't be technically crippled
  Writers love to rant and rave about how pervasive technology is in our society. Yet there are still students who can't find their way around on a computer. If you go to college, chances are high you will use a computer at some point. I'm not saying every student needs to be able to code up a business application, but it is so unlikely you will never have a job where you will use a computer. So it would behoove you to become familiar with technology and not waste everybody's time as you stare dumbly at a computer monitor. A computer can be a tool, and the more you practice with it, the better off you will be.
  


• Learn to do the little things correctly
  This is huge. I've spent too much time working with students who don't know how to put a quick slide show together or format a large document. Even things like formatting a paper MLA or APA style without having to look everything up are skills that will come up in college. These are little tricks and skills most high schools should teach their students if they are able. One should hope that before a student takes a job, they won't need remedial training on how to do the little things correctly. It's an unfortunate waste of time. The faster you learn to do these things without thinking about them, the faster and easier projects and assignments will go.
  
  


• Learn to write well
  This one is also huge, but perhaps I am a little biased. There were times in college where I was just dumbfounded that students were about to graduate and still couldn't write well. I won't go into horror stories with this one, but this is important repeat: important.
  
  Part of my senior assessment before I could graduate from the business college was a writing prompt. I thought it was some kind of joke or trick question. The assignment was to explain why strong writing skills in job candidates was important to businesses. The prompt was written terribly. I couldn't believe it.
  
  Nevertheless, the point remains. Writing well saves time, communicates effectively, and shows respect for the work and for the reader.
  
  Seriously, I don't know how else to put this: learn to write well.
  


• Learn to study and use time effectively
  I'm not the poster child for anti-procrastination. To be honest, I get distracted just as easily as the next person. However, I like to work hard and I can usually make up for time lost.
  
  I've heard that there are students who can study and work efficiently and actually manage to go to bed before midnight. If there were something I wish I were better at, it would be the ability to manage my time effectively.
  
  One skill I learned was time boxing. This is a practice generally related to software development, and it is how it was taught to me. However, the practice of identifying tasks, estimating the time required to complete them, and committing to a schedule was a really effective way of getting things done.
  
  Tools like Thymer or Remember the Milk are great tools for personal task management. I've heard The Hit List is a great tool for Mac. I don't own said status symbol, so I can't say anything about it.
  


• Find a way to get out of the country
  Nebraska isn't exactly the most cultured state in the nation. I know there are lots of kids who haven't been out of the country, been to either coast, or have even left the country. Today's economy is becoming increasingly more global, and being able to relate to a world that doesn't live on Big-Macs and pick-up trucks will be of growing importance.
  


• Learn the balancing act
  My mother did a great job of preaching balance to me my whole life, and I really appreciate it now. I would advise everybody to be well-rounded individuals and not lean too heavily on any one thing (note, this has nothing to do with my thoughts on faith or religion. That's a completely different discussion).
  


• Don't be a sheep
  High school is a pretty social place. Cliques are rampant. Many social activities are scheduled out. Students shuffle off to class together and everything happens according to routine. Things change in college, yet too many people want to continue acting like they're in high school.
  
  Don't do things just because everybody else is. Numbers don't always make something right. Instead, think for yourself. Take pride in being different, because it is often the courage of one person willing to go against the grain that make the most significant change.
  
  With everything that confronts you, think critically. Like I said earlier about labeling things as crap, make sure you understand what is going on before you follow the heard. Make sure it is something you would have done if you were by yourself and nobody could see you.
  
  The same can be said for integrity and ethics. I can think of too many groups or social constructs that cause people to think they can do atrocious things because everybody else does it. History and psychology experiments reveal the sad truth. However, the same things happen in college. Nobody needs to spend a night wrapped around a toilet, yet we have social constructs that encourage it.
  
  Don't be a sheep. Do things because they are right, not because they are popular.
  


• Now, find a group to join
  This seems an odd contradiction directly after the preceding point, yet humans are designed to be social creatures. We are generally wired to function in groups. In a practical perspective, this is useful because a group can do so much more than an individual ever could.
  
  This is related to a true appreciation of diversity. Diversity should be more than skin-deep, as is so popular to preach today. Diversity of thought is what I love to leverage, and a healthy social group will seek out diversity to make sure it can take advantage of each individual's uniqueness.
  
  Thus, as an individual, it would be beneficial for us to join groups so that we can learn to work with people and benefit from the diverse mix of skills, thoughts, emotions, cultures, languages, and so on. The important thing is to join a group that would make you a better individual than you could be on your own. Be sure that the reputation of the group is something you'd be proud to append to your own.
  


• Don't wait too long to be significant
  Thanks to Van Wilder, we love to say "don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out alive." I do agree with that, and I've learned a lot about being relaxed in the face of life's pressures. However, I've seen too many young people take this idea to the extreme.
  
  At what age do we become accountable to our community? How long is appropriate to wait before we're supposed to give back? How many years before "I'm still in college" is an excuse for wasteful and bad behavior?
  
  The rising popularity of college created this concept of "adolescence." It used to be that kids would quickly become adults when they turned 18, but now we have this period of adolescence where we throw any responsibility to grow up out the window until it's time to graduate. And yet, as graduation approached, I heard so many of my peers absolutely panicked to have to enter "the real world." Indeed, it is a daunting prospect, but why wait until the weeks before your graduation to think about how you will relate to the world around you?
  
  Don't wait too long to figure out who you are going to be. Learn to give back and be a significant individual why you are in college. It's actually kind of fun to do and you'll surprise a lot of people.
  


• Get involved in community service
  We have a surprising amount of talent compared to much of the need in the community and in the world around us. Yet, most of it goes to waste hidden within a college campus. Community service and social activism comes with a huge wealth of benefits and it is the appropriate and reasonable way to relate to the rest of the world. There is little reason to wait and see how you can contribute to the community, region, and world that gave you so much. We are a truly blessed people and we should learn to see how we can put our blessings to work. I also think this is a blast, and it is definitely worth looking into.
  

So that's all I have so far. If there is a point I missed or you think I'm way off, please leave a comment or shoot me a note. I'll check them all out and add them in before I make my presentation tomorrow.

Slides so far: