Well collegiettes, another school year has begun. And with another school year comes another round of back-to-school shopping. Y’all know the deal: pens, pencils, paper, planner (I highly recommend Kate Spade!). But lately I’ve been thinking about the less tangible, less-thought of things everyone should throw in the shopping cart of their personalities to help them succeed.
The first item is a good set of manners.
For the love of God, don’t let everything your mother taught you fly out of you as soon as you fly from her nest. Say please. Say thank you. Let doors be held for you. Hold doors for others. Ask others on the elevator or in passing in the hallway how their day is going, and genuinely be interested in the answer. If you’re at a meal with friends, put your phone up. It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone when you’re not focused on the rest of the world. If someone goes out of their way for you, write a thank-you note. It’s a small gesture, but it really does go a long way. After any meeting or interview, the first thing I do is send whoever I met with a note, thanking them for their time. It has helped me numerous times, and is often listed as one of the reasons I was given the job.
Next on the list, is confidence.
I’m not talking about confidence as in, “I’m completely comfortable in my own body”, because I don’t know if that is even possible. I’m talking about confidence as in “I believe that I can take on the world myself”. I’m not saying do everything alone, but if you see a club or organization that sparks your interest, go for it. It doesn’t matter if no one else you know is going- half the fun of trying new things is meeting new people.
My final and most important piece of advice is to find your group of girlfriends before you start looking for a boy.
I didn’t have a boyfriend last year, and I don’t have one now, but even so, I am eternally grateful that I found my clique, my crew, my squad when I did. We met under the randomest of circumstances at the beginning of freshman year, and have since then progressed into a tiny mismatched family of roommates and soul sisters. I hope every girl, on this campus and beyond, gets to experience that. And if you’re here at App for your MRS degree, I’m not judging, I’m just asking you to wait a bit. Guys will come and go, like waves crashing on a shore, but it’s your girls that get to play in the sand with you.
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