A few semesters into college we find ourselves looking back and wondering: “What would have happened if I’d known what I know now?” Here at Her Campus – UPRM a few of us were wondering the same thing. This is an excercise in the same thought, so we went around campus asking what you guys would tell the younger you if you had the chance. Here are few of those answers.
“Never allow people’s ignorance to bring you down; never be afraid to show people who you really are. When it comes down to it, people don’t have to give you their respect, so if you want it, you better give them a reason to.”
-Microbiology Major from Cabo Rojo
“Save money, a lot of it. I’m in my third year of college and I wasted so much money in a lot of things that were never really that magical or meaningful. Many things will come your way, and you’re going to find yourself wishing those 20 bucks you found in the washing had wound up in your savings account instead of paying your tab at the bar.”
Psychology major from Dorado
“Before anyone falls in love with anyone else they should fall in love with themselves. I’ve already had a first love, but I always find myself wishing I had been my own first love, to had loved every inch of myself before someone gave me a reason to criticize it.”
Social Sciences major from Rio Piedras
“We’re all human, and we are all fighting our own silent wars. Just because we can’t see each other bleeding doesn’t mean we aren’t hurting. Gather as much good karma as you can. Sometimes, it isn’t so much about being the best person as much as it about being the kindest. The important thing is to forgive those who bring you down and to recognize when you do it to someone else. What goes around always comes back around.”
Biology/Microbiology major from Mayagüez
“Stop apologizing. For such a long time in my life all I could do was apologize. I’d apologize for falling in love, I’d apologize for being sad, I’d apologize for having questions, I’d apologize for not being pretty or smart enough: and at my worst, I started apologizing for existing. Then I realized, I couldn’t keep apologizing for being human. That the right questions deserve their answers, that I don’t owe anyone my looks or my intelligence: though my existence might never mean much to the world, someday someone will be as much my world as I am theirs.”
Psychology/ English major from Mayagüez
“Don’t pay so much attention to what other people think. Everyone is always going to have an opinion on what you’re doing, who you’re dating, what you’re wearing, weather you’re following the trends or finding yourself outside the bubble. Keep an open mind to the people you hold close, but know whatever you decide, its your choice to live with and your story to write.”
Psychology/Biology from Boston
“Love has no space for in-betweens, when it’s bad, it’s bad-but when it’s good it can be exhilarating. What really matters is that we all have something to learn from everyone. Cherish every moment. Especially those 4am conversations you never saw coming. We are all on the same journey of finding ourselves, and one day we’re going to look back, and smile. Maybe the poets were right, maybe love is all there is.”
Psysics major from Ponce
If you had the chance to tell yourself something a few years ago what would it be?