What I’ve Learned So Far

Sophie Zhang

有人曾用鲁迅先生的四部作品来概括大学四年生活：大一《彷徨》，大二《呐喊》，大三《伤逝》，大四《朝花夕拾》。入学伊始的茫然，适应之后的狂欢，黯然神伤逝者如斯，蓦然回首追忆往昔。在经历过所有之后，你是收获了成功还是叹息过去的碌碌无为呢？谨以此篇献给即将毕业的你。

Why is choosing the right college such a big deal? We dream and hope for the best, and when that wish isn’t ful filled, we are truly devastated.1. fulfill: 实现，满足；devastated: 被毁坏的 ，文中指垮掉的，不知所措的。I can’t think of another transition in life where your choice is that important. For me, at 17 years old, that was the biggest decision I had ever made in my life. Prior to that, all of the important choices had been made by my parents for me.

That was almost four years ago. I know adults often say time flies,but now that college graduation is looming2. loom: 逼近，隐约可见。closer and closer, I finally understand what they mean. It really doesn’t seem that long ago that my parents dropped me off3. drop off: 让……下车。in my dorm room, and I experienced a feeling of loneliness that I had never known before. I still remember that first night—no one was on campus, my roommate hadn’t arrived yet, and the weather was that kind of nasty, sticky hot that leaves you sweaty and feeling feverish throughout the entire night.4. 我仍记得那第一夜：校园里没有人，我的室友还没来，天气是那种令人烦躁的潮热，让人汗津津的，整个晚上都像发烧一样。nasty: 令人不愉快的；feverish: 发烧的。Fast forward to today, I have friends that will stick with me through a lifetime, I have a boyfriend that I treasure deeply, and knowledge and life lessons that have shaped me into a different person.

What’s the most important thing we learn at college?Well, I can tell you that I know a lot more about statistics and probability methods than I did in high school. I can also tell you all about the history of U.S. consumerism5. consumerism: 消费主义，认为人们购买和使用大量商品和服务有利于国家经济。through the 19th to 21st centuries. But all of that are things you can learn in textbooks and on the internet, as long as you have a little motivation and dedication to follow through.6. dedication: 奉献，尽心尽力；follow through: 坚持到底。The reason why college has been important to me is the person I have become as a result of it. Here are the top five most important things I have learned in college:

1. Negotiation.The art of getting what you want isn’t an easy one to master, and it takes a lot of practice and interacting with7. interact with: 与……打交道。dif ficult people. I learned this the hard way upon going to my first fraternity8. fraternity: 兄弟会，大学生联谊会。party freshmen year. Who knew that the frat brothers at the door needed their egos to be nurtured and sweetened before they would let anybody in?9. 谁知道那些兄弟会成员们要在得到极大的自我满足之后才会让你入场呢？frat: 兄弟会成员；ego: 自我；nurture: 滋养。If you’re traveling with a group of girls, your chances of admittance are signi ficantly higher. If you’re traveling with even one boy, you’re going to need to up your sweet talk game10. up one’s game: 即step up one’s game，意为提高、改进（技能、策略等）。even more.

2. Taking care of yourself.We’ve all made fun of the typical college student who lives off instant noodles and left-over pizza.11. 我们都取笑过那些靠方便面和剩披萨度日的学生，他们是大学生中典型的一类人。live off: 以……为食料，靠……为生；left-over:剩饭。Yes, we’ve all been there—junk food tastes good at 2a.m.in the morning, when you’ve just finished a problem set and you want to relax with your computer and a nice bag of chips. But at a certain point, you realize it’s not worth it waking up every morning feeling like absolute garbage.

3. Learning how to say no.This is a lot harder than it seems. I always thought of myself as a fairly assertive12. assertive: 坚定而自信的。person, but I often found myself having trouble saying no when it came to friends. I had friends who would take and take and take, and never reciprocate13. reciprocate: 回报，报答。when it came time to me needing help. I used to feel bad about saying no, but then I felt worse once I was being used.Don’t be a pushover14. pushover: 易被劝服的人，易受影响的人。. Stand up for yourself, but never be rude. Learn how to say no diplomatically15. diplomatically: 圆滑地，婉转地。.

4. Accepting failure.No matter how successful you were in high school, there will come a time in college (and life after)where you fail. It might come in the form of a failed test, a failed friendship, or a failed relationship. I’ve had all three happen to me over the course of the past four years, and it never feels good. It’s easy to fall down a slippery slope and think, “Well, because I failed this test, I’m not going to get an A in this class, and then my GPA will go down, and then I won’t get into grad school, and if I don’t get into grad school,16. fall down: 失败；slippery slope:灾难性的急剧下滑；GPA: Grade Point Average，平均成绩点数，平均分数；grad school: 研究生院。what am I going to do with my life?” College isn’t out to17. be out to: 试图。destroy your life, it’s out to build it. You can’t go back in time and fix things. But you can avoid making the same mistake again.

5. Seeing the bigger picture.This stems a little bit from18. stem from: 起源于。#4.In high school, it’s harder to imagine life beyond your small world of friends, parties, and school. In college, you realize the world is huge. There are so many opportunities to seize, people to meet,and things to learn. But many people feel overwhelmed19. overwhelmed: 不知所措的。by these possibilities. The sheer amount20. sheer amount: 巨大的数量，sheer意为“十足的，完全的”。of decisions to make defeats them,and they become indecisive and unmotivated as a result. Don’t let this be you. Be positive. Know that at any point in time, a single decision will not decide your fate. Decisions are not reversible21. reversible: 可逆转的。,but you can make different choices in the future. Your life is never ruined. It’s never the end of the world.

I still have one semester left of college, and though the changes have been gradual, they have also been perceptible22. perceptible: 可察觉的，可感知的。. I feel like I’ve grown up.

I feel like an adult.