Dear Adrianne from 10 weeks ago,
Save yourself $20 by not buying those swim goggles. You never do end up going to the gym regularly as you planned to during the summer.
Remember to check your spare tire. In nine weeks when you are on your way to pick up your sister, your right rear tire blows up out of nowhere on the freeway. You’ll be fine. When you’re pulling of to the shoulder, a freeway service patrol notices your trail of smoke, and you get your tire changed for free. However the next day, on your way to Walmart, you find a screw has punctured the spare that you were using…
I know you took numerous AP classes during high school. Good job for passing every single one. But don’t get too overconfident. Trust me, you are going to be happy that you stuck with only 12 units in your first quarter. It is a rough transition from the semester to the quarter system. And on the steep learning curve, you don’t just slip; you slide. Even though you have more free time to do homework, you still manage to avoid it until the last minute. Also, for the sake of your sleep schedule, please get the senioritis out of your system during the summer.
Eventually, after a few pitfalls, you manage to get your bearings. You even feel confident enough in your study skills to sign up for 16 units next quarter.
There’s going to be more than quite a few pitfalls. You do not get all A’s on your exams for the first time. You find it hard to make friends when you are not able to stick around on campus for long and are so terribly, painfully shy. You are going to get rejected by that boy that you talk to all the time in your Monday discussion that you think is cute for some reason.
Every experience as a first year is a novel one that brings you to a faint extent out of your comfort zone. Just hang in there. Stand tall. Keep your head held high. Scores of Cs on midterms are not the end of the world. Next time, focus on comprehension, not memorization of the material. Do not wait until the day before to start cramming. And it also helps if you manage to get at least 7 hours of sleep. There is no use of putting all this information in your brain if you fall asleep during exams when you are measured on how much you can pull all of it out. You are still socially awkward even to this day. Yet, there are hundreds of other students in your classes that are just as new to this campus as you. It never hurts to say hello or sit down next to someone you have never seen before. Don’t be discouraged when you spend an entire lecture chatting with someone and can not manage to find them again. Just repeat the same process of striking up a conversation with someone new. In due course, you will find friends that stick. And on a final side note, though you get rejected, you are going to be proud of yourself for even summoning the courage to confess your feelings in the first place. Rejection is surprisingly not that devastating, and you move on fairly quickly.
Good luck with your remaining two quarters! Without a doubt, I am certain you will make them better than your first one.
With love,
Adrianne
P.S. Also, the boy that you constantly stare at in your Friday discussion eventually catches on that you are not only looking at the clock.