Mastering the Jedi Mind Trick

College is like fighting The Galactic Empire in Star Wars. You’re a Jedi Padawan in The Rebel Alliance trying so desperately to gain independence from the Empire deviously controlled by The Sith. All you and the Jedi Order want is peace. Unfortunately, your father is second in command to the Galactic Empire and on top of that sold his soul to the Dark side of the Force.  Yes, I believe that this is college in a nutshell.

For all those who are not strong in the Force, I’ll clarify. I prefer to think of everyone as special in some way, therefore instead calling you a random Alliance Soldier I’ll call you a Jedi. Next, think of the decision of going to college as the decision of joining the Rebel Alliance. By joining the Alliance, or college, you have a new freedom you’ve never had before.  There’s no Jedi Master over you to tell you when you need to go to class.  However, don’t be mistaken, you’re not completely free. Hence, The Galactic Empire or the massive amounts of homework you have to fight against. Every time you think you killed that Sith Apprentice another one pops up. Hint: due dates never die.  I know that all you want to do is chill and have everlasting peace in the Republic, but the fights not even close to beginning.  You can’t forget that your daddy has a membership to club Evil, which means: that really awesome professor you started networking with, is a part of The Galactic Empire. That’s right he’s a Sith Lord giving you a bunch of Sith apprentices to Lightsaber up. But it’s not just him, it’s all of your professors at the same time giving you the lovely gift of homework. So much to do, but so little time. . .

Remember to just breathe. Use the force and stretch out with your feelings. Which means, don’t forget that there are many people on campus to help you. Even your professors are there to help you. Being shy is a luxury you can’t afford. Talk to whatever or whoever you need to, so that you can succeed in college. This is just the first step towards the real world. Getting behind now will just make the next step even harder. Hint: work to success never dies.

Continuing from that last hint, The Republic isn’t going to save itself. Translation: Your good future isn’t going to come on its own. You have to make it happen.  Remember to breathe and to space things out. Everyone knows that they need to recharge with the three basic “F’s”:  friends, facebook, and food. However, this doesn’t mean to push all your homework to the night before. That’s how the Dark side wins.

 I will say it for the last time, remember to breathe. Breathing is good for you.

 May the Force be with you.        

Time and I? *pfft* Don't get me started

Time and I go way back. There was that one moment where I was late to my first class in high school. I just missed him by a few minutes. There was also the moment when Time forgot my birthday in 6th grade; talk about a 80s movie flashback. It seems that no matter where we are, we miss each other by a hair. It’s just a hair, but that's still enough to shift our relationship out of balance. Even when I'm with Time I just end up losing track of him. Just like any other man, Time, is hard to manage.     

Sometimes, when we’re hitting a rough spot, I think we should see a professional. There are days where I know we can work this out and then there are days when I just want to let him go. The latter, is usually when we’re trying to do a duet in music. He just can’t get those dotted rhythm and don’t get me started on when the song changes time. It’s as if the note values don’t mean anything to him. I always feel embarrassed when people ask us to play together, but it’s not like I can leave him behind. When we start playing music we decided we would play together, always. Hopefully going to the same college will help him improve.

Another burden I have to deal with is that Time likes to sleep in. He’ll even turn the snooze button on several times before he gets up in the morning. It drives me insane because than I’ll wake up late and miss breakfast.  We enjoy taking naps occasionally before class in the afternoon, but every time we do he’ll turn off the alarm so we’ll miss the first few minutes of class. If it wasn’t for me, we would never get to class at all.

Although Time has his weaknesses he does do well with certain things. For example, he and I never really liked Facebook. We get on to see some old friends, but other than that we never get on. He still doesn’t really know how to use it. He can also juggle family and homework fairly well towards the beginning of the year, but towards the end is when he starts to have meltdowns. There’s really not much I can do to help.  I’ll try and write down everything that needs to be done and he’ll get around to it… eventually.

Do I have any advice on Time? Hmm well, I’d focus on his cousins Present and Future. Honestly, just forget about Past. All he ever does is ponder on what has happened in his life. A big waste if you ask me. Yes, Present and Future, they seem the most reliable.