Hopefully some help!
Hello my friend!
Sorry we haven’t spoken much lately, I have had a pretty eventful first year and I’m sure you have also been busy getting ready for the “big move” next year. The best way in which I can help you with this adjustment is to give you a few tips and hints that I really could have used when moving to a university away from home.
The fun begins and ends when you arrive at your new home. I’m sure you remember how nervous I was about leaving my family and friends especially because goodbyes can be so difficult. This is where tip 1 comes in handy: “Goodbyes are followed by hellos!” In other words, saying goodbye to your old friends and family forces you to make new friends who become your family away from home.
This brings me to tip 2: “You can never have too many friends”. Try not to be shy because you are nervous. Like I have told you before, seal-clubbing is a special feature of o-week (the first week of term) so rather use this time to make friends. Having friends are an important part of ones academic and social life. To clarify the academic point made…pulling an all-nighter to study and finish assignments would not be the same if you didn’t have a housemate to keep you awake on caffeine and chocolate.
O-week is somewhat a right-off in terms of academics but allows one to explore the social amenities that surround the campus. This is a very big hint: go out as much as possible!!! There are many commonsense tips which you WILL be told about like “don’t go out alone”, “don’t get drunk” and the very cliched line “don’t do drugs”. These have all been heard before and no one listens to them anyway so here is tip 3: “Don’t be stupid”. You know what is right and what is wrong so do what is right!
With these tips in mind, the first couple of days will be the best start for any first year. I am not going to lie or omit the truth in any way…. There will definitely be obstacles throughout your adventure but that is why I’m here to help you take the trip without tripping.
Much love,
Jane
Sorry we haven’t spoken much lately, I have had a pretty eventful first year and I’m sure you have also been busy getting ready for the “big move” next year. The best way in which I can help you with this adjustment is to give you a few tips and hints that I really could have used when moving to a university away from home.
The fun begins and ends when you arrive at your new home. I’m sure you remember how nervous I was about leaving my family and friends especially because goodbyes can be so difficult. This is where tip 1 comes in handy: “Goodbyes are followed by hellos!” In other words, saying goodbye to your old friends and family forces you to make new friends who become your family away from home.
This brings me to tip 2: “You can never have too many friends”. Try not to be shy because you are nervous. Like I have told you before, seal-clubbing is a special feature of o-week (the first week of term) so rather use this time to make friends. Having friends are an important part of ones academic and social life. To clarify the academic point made…pulling an all-nighter to study and finish assignments would not be the same if you didn’t have a housemate to keep you awake on caffeine and chocolate.
O-week is somewhat a right-off in terms of academics but allows one to explore the social amenities that surround the campus. This is a very big hint: go out as much as possible!!! There are many commonsense tips which you WILL be told about like “don’t go out alone”, “don’t get drunk” and the very cliched line “don’t do drugs”. These have all been heard before and no one listens to them anyway so here is tip 3: “Don’t be stupid”. You know what is right and what is wrong so do what is right!
With these tips in mind, the first couple of days will be the best start for any first year. I am not going to lie or omit the truth in any way…. There will definitely be obstacles throughout your adventure but that is why I’m here to help you take the trip without tripping.
Much love,
Jane
Labels: first year, tips, university
posted by CruisersLac at
7:04 AM
1 Comments:
What I wrote in criticism of this letter for today's assignment:
***
Jane's letter to herself on Cruiser's Lac starts on a disturbingly schizophrenic note—"Sorry we haven't spoken much lately"—occasioning the reader to wonder (only a little facetiously) if she was in the habit of conversing with herself prior to this unexplained hiatus.
Equally bemusing is the presumption that follows: "I'm sure you have also been busy getting ready for the 'big move' next year." One would think that, armed with hindsight (having literally been in her correspondent's shoes this time last year), Jane would show a mite more confidence on this point.
Solecisms (of which there are many) and spelling and grammatical errors (of which there are even more) aside, my only great criticism of this most endearing missive is that it appears contrived, almost as if its author were drafting it as a perfunctory university assignment rather than an earnest piece of advice for someone who genuinely needs it. Certainly, she glosses over a few points that could well have done with elucidation. What, for example, is meant by "Like I have told you before, seal-clubbing is a special feature of o-week (the first week of term) so rather use this time to make friends"? I do not believe that I have stumbled upon a seal (less still one subjected to a beating) in my three terms at Rhodes, a fact which I should like to think owes to more than my reclusive modus vivendi.
If a little trite, Jane's advice is generally pretty sound: "Having friends are [sic] an important part of ones [sic] academic and social life," she declares prior to spouting a stream of bromides the like of which I have never seen: "don't go out alone", "don't get drunk", "don't do drugs" and, best of all, "[d]on't be stupid".
At any rate, if Jane's correspondent keeps all this in mind, she will find her first year in Grahamstown a breeze.
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