I know how you think of yourself — an unbendable soldier. But you don’t always have to prove yourself. Once the toast hits the floor — jam-side-down — you can start lending yourself some grace.
The biggest favor you can do for your future self is to stop thinking of them as a different person. They’re you, just a little older. They’ll have the same pressures and desires as you do right now, and it won’t get any easier.
Either I’m psychic or I’ve just started noticing patterns, but I can feel the “Lawn Restoration in Process” signs coming. College decision deadlines are fast approaching, and Duke will want to comb its hair and straighten its bow-tie before welcoming potential Dukies to campus.
It’s fair to acknowledge that there are only so many reservoirs, oil wells and plots of land on Earth. In that sense, our collective resources are copious but limited. But who ever decided that there are unlimited wants?
A Duke bachelor's degree costs the average student $198,427, which the college advisory website College Factual doesn’t think is great value for money. But does our “big name” make it worth it?
Many studies have suggested that we might do a lot better individually and collectively if we were only more patient. If we weighed payoffs with logic rather than emotion, we could start thinking of choices as long-term investments.
When used cautiously, these words can aid our speech: Without them, we’d sound robotic. But there’s a sweet spot we should try to land on. While drowning in fillers, we can’t expect to be articulate.
The world is very different now compared to how it used to be 100,000 years ago. But some human trials have stood the test of time: through the years, we’ve struggled with confronting our mortality. One way we try to cope with that is by leaving a piece of ourselves behind.
Time is escaping us Duke students faster than we even realize. As fast-growing adults, we should try to slow this experience down. We should pull our eyes away from the next break, the finish line, and focus on what’s around us.
Learning a little about everything is beneficial to us both in college and later in our careers. At the undergraduate level, it should be highly encouraged. Duke isn’t helping.
