The Evergreen State College Top Questions

Follow your heart; jobs are means to ends, part of the life process (journey) but not the guidelight. Try to focus on a meaningful work path that supports your true nature. Jobs from the outside are not often long lasting therefore develop your education and life from the mainspring of your passions and go forth with mindfulness. Try to be aware that what is delivered for major consumption may not be good for you. Explore experiment and grow from your heart, the mind and body need attention but your heart speaks truth, go into it and allow it to have its voice. We are in a paradigm shift, be a positive pathmaker.

I would advise my highschool self to take some time to find out what it was I wanted to learn. Do a few self assesments to figure out which direction I would like to go in. When I was a high school senior, I attempted college as it was "the thing to do". Now as I return to school, I have a firm idea of what I would like to know and that college is a place to learn things. I would tell myself that an institution of higher learning is a research facility, with classes and faculty designed and dedicated to help advance your knowledge, not just earn a piece of paper that says you can get a better paying job. I would also let myself know that education is a way of life and not a four year period of time one must trudge through to suit society or reach a certain income level. Today's Kathryn would tell yesterday's Kathryn to always learn, no matter what.

Work with people, and you'll know that it's not just for their sake, but for yours as well. You'll probably be able to put things in a better perspective, and you definitely won't worry as much. I don't think it's that good of an idea to talk to yourself when you're from the future, considering you're thinking about different things, but if I learned anything from Bill and Teds excellent adventure, and the first two quarters of this school year, I'd say that being active is it's own reward, and working with people opens up a lot more possiblities for you to be active. In that frameline (that's a word isn't it), I'd tell my high school self to relate myself to the people around myself, and to tell the princesses that I said hi.

I would tell myself to concentrate more on studying and less on socializing. It is important to socialize but it is more important to allow sufficient study time. If possible, I would tell myself to not work as many hours to allow for more study time. I would also tell myself to take advantage of study groups.

Seeing as I did a running start style program my junior senior years of high school I was already at a college full time. The biggest thing I could have said though is that school is more than just school, especially with the sciences. It has to be everything you do to be the best you can, but you also cannot lose the essence of who you were to begin with. The transition from living at home to living on my own has let me manage my own time to be the best I can in my studies, while still giving me that time required to keep me who I am and explore as many other subjects as possible. Taking a break is the most valuable skill I could have given myself during my senior year in highschool to better my studies.

I would tell myself that things get better. I think I would encourage myself to still join the military, but I would encourage him to do so with a plan for transitioning directly into college upon completion of his contract, rather than wasting time. I would impress upon him the urgency of getting his schooling done early so as to not be still working on a Bachelor's degree in his 30s, as is the current situation. I would also advise him that romantic entanglements are not nearly as important as they may seem at the heady age of 18, and that keeping a level head and eye towards the future would take him a lot farther than any other pursuit he could get wrapped up in.

Focus on the big picture, not individual classes or interests alone. Going to college is more than getting a degree, it is learning how to take the skills you learn and apply them in fields that may not seem to be immediately apparent, and develop enough depth to your studies that you can adapt to changes in technology and the economy.

I would tell myself, Even though you come from this town that has proven historically to be a dead end, you have a chance to take a different path. Even though your parents kicked you out when you were 17, you’re still going to make it. One day your family is going to look back at you and see how hard you worked to get where you are now, on your own. You don’t need anyone’s help to get where you are going to be. You have to believe in yourself more, know that you can do this on your own! Start now! Don’t wait the next 6 years before you figure it out! Do it now! Just because no one else went to college doesn’t mean you don’t have to. To get where you want to be in life you are the one who you can count on to make it happen! NO ONE ELSE! You have a chance that will make it clear to see what you should be doing in life, get started on the path that takes you there now! Don’t wait!

Don't get stressed out about college being too hard. It's a lot like high school, just without parents.

Travel!! Don't worry about trying to make college work right away, wait until you have something you want to use it for. If you want to take some classes, great, but only choose the ones you want and make sure to finish them. Dont load up on pre-requisites and then drop them, there is no reason, pre-requisites are a waste of time. Dont buy into that prescribed method of learning. This is your education, you should be using it to learn what you want to learn, so you can do something that matters to you. And if you dont know what you want to learn yet, then for the love of God do not just waste time living and working! TRAVEL!!!