Senior "I wish I had known..."
Break up with long distance significant others from high school immediately - you don't want to miss out on college life.
I wish I knew back then that the time a class meets is important, and it really sucks to have any back to back.
I really wish someone had told me to look beyond my freshmen hall to form friendships. Because, freshman year, your hall is your family and you travel in packs because you're scared and you don't know anyone else, but then sophomore year, you all live in different places and you realize you're really restricted socially because you never hung out with anyone off your hall.
Try a local restaurant, find a church, volunteer, and talk to people. Not only will it help Kenyon's reputation in the community, but also it will REALLY enrich your four years here.
Take advantage of all the things here on campus. In the real world, there aren't movies, there aren't ping pong tournaments, pizza nights, interesting speakers, art exhibits, craft classes, bowling and sports events offered free to the public every night.
Don't try to do too much, pick a few things that you love and do them really well, the only thing that matters is what makes you happy.
SLEEP!
Let�s see...I wish I had known that it's not considered abnormal to dislike frat parties - I honestly felt defective freshman year, when each weekend my friends would dress up and go to a different party, and I�d stay in the dorm by myself. Then sophomore year hit and they never attended another frat party, and I realized that I wasn't so weird.
I wish I had known that actually, not everyone is watching you, despite what you may think. In fact, those upperclassmen really don't care WHAT you do -- it's only when you're a big showoff or loudmouth that people pay attention what you're doing (with negative responses). So do your own thing and don't prescribe so much to what you THINK people are thinking about you.
But then, someone else said:The impressions you make as a freshman absolutely stick with you-- on such a small campus and with the rumor mill being what it is, even "low-profile" people can pick up reputations based on just a couple of offhand comments in class or on isolated incidents, and, regardless of how much you might think you've changed over the course of four years, those things STILL resurface and shape people's impressions of you as a senior.
And, as a very important message from me and all my senior friends, I say: BE VERY VERY CAREFUL WHO YOU HOOK UP WITH, DATE, DUMP, OR PISS OFF. You will probably have to live in very close contact with these people for the next four years, and although in the moment it might seem like you could handle that with no problems, you can't. Go out into the world and be an asshole if you feel like it, but make the decision now to be the best possible person you can be while you're at Kenyon. You'll be glad you did.
Communities of friends are the longest-lasting unit you will make here. No matter how great your relationship is (and even, by some stroke of amazing luck, the two of you stay together for all four years!), it will NEVER be as fulfilling or complete as the bonds you have with your group. You will miss out on SO much of life here if you bury your head in a relationship. Have seen it happen to a number of people, who for multiple years were in a serious Kenyon relationship, only to break up senior year and find that they weren't tied to anything here beyond their significant other,and were literally out of many loops as a result. Sad.
I wish that someone had told me that friendships at Kenyon aren't permanent and that instead of investing my entire being into one friend/boyfriend/girlfriend, that I should make efforts to get to know all different groups of people.
I wish I knew how much more important having a private space would become as I went through college, as much fun as living in each others' pockets is freshman year.
I wish I wasn't so easily swayed by other people's opinions of people. I missed getting to know a lot of great students my first year because I was influenced by things overheard in the Kenyon network of know-it-allness. Mind your business, my loves.
I wish someone had told me that the school actually keeps track of your rank in the class. (Yikes, that was scary to find out)
Wish I knew how small the school actually was (i.e. rumor mill) and how people, when they don't know explicit details of your personal life, they just make it up as they pass it around.
My roommate and her boyfriend had sex in the room freshman year, and in McBride, that means that it was REALLY close to me! That could have constituted as sexual harassment. They also did things to my property, to my computer, to my writing, etc., and I never realized that all of these things could be filed with security as harassment or sexual harassment.
I wish someone had told me that college was only 8 semesters and 32 courses, and that there'd never be another time like it.
Say hi to the ladies in Peirce and the Bookstore and the Registrar's office--Kenyon stops without them.
Frat parties are the single lamest, most gosh-awful and pointless thing ever.
The thing I wish I�d known (or just kept more in mind--maybe I knew it; it sounds pretty obvious) is how easy it is to be really unhealthy and how important it is to make the effort to maintain a balanced lifestyle. Basically, freshman year I never slept enough, I ate a shitty diet, and I didn't work out on a regular basis. I�m so much healthier and feel a lot better when I�m conscious of getting at least 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night, working out on a regular basis, and eating a balanced diet. This might sound really lame, but I think it's so easy to forget about these things that were structured for us much more in high school.
Getting up for a 10am class is much harder than you think.
The students' attitude towards writing is unsettlingly similar to the attitude of the tone-deaf contestants on AMERICAN IDOL. No one wants any genuine, constructive criticism, and they certainly don't know what to do with it when they receive it. Just because you've always been told by your high school English teachers that you're good, that doesn't mean it's TRUE-- it might mean that you just don't have any perspective. Constructive criticism-- both from faculty and from peers-- is meant to be HELPFUL and to shape people into BETTER WRITERS. But, from my experience, the "Everybody Gets a Trophy Day" mentality that's so pervasive here at Kenyon means that most people just instinctively react to any less-than-fawning feedback by dismissing their critics as "pretentious," "hostile," or "just too stupid to see what I'm going for." Considering the volume of outright TERRIBLE student writing I've read in the past four years, it honestly scares me to think of what's being produced at schools WITHOUT Kenyon's literary reputation, and it makes me wonder how Kenyon's reputation is actually being maintained.
I wish someone had told me not to call the senior guy I was hooking up with my "boyfriend." - I wish someone had explained Kenyon dating culture.
I wish someone had told me that the security escort service will seriously pick you up from a party down south and drive you home- for FREE.
I wish I had known before I came to this school that it is not so uncommon for date rape to occur, though it is uncommon for people to talk about it.
Stay at lectures late and talk with the speakers.
Write something every day.
Above all, love this place.
