Friday, August 31, 2012

A note to my 18 year old self

Things to keep in mind:

1. Not to over-stress about school leaving and engineering entrance exams. The outcomes are of no meaning to the world outside West Bengal. Many of the classmates that you see submerged in school books and studying so hard as if their entire existence depends on the Chemistry formulae would vanish into oblivion in less than five years.

2. No boy-friend till you turn 25. Life becomes much smoother and enjoyable if there's no "stupid guy" to worry about. After 25, you'll have a guy to worry about for the rest of your life, so don't invite that trouble before hand.

3. Learning computer programming is more important than any of the other courses in college. So concentrate on getting your hands dirty with actual C and Java code and not memorizing what polymorphism means. Your future professors and managers are not going to ask you to write a "short note on OOP*", they would expect you to write Java programs that works.

* don't buy/read/try to understand Herbert Schildt's book on Java programming. "Head first" series will help you a lot more :) Don't buy any of the books related to comp-sci. They are not really needed and you'll never read them later. Surf the web for answers - remember Google is your best friend.

4. Save the half written stories in those weird journals. They might look stupid now, but later you might be able to use the same plots to write more mature stories.
Stick it!

5. Eat some more. It doesn't hurt to gain a little weight now that you have people to cook and serve you what you want to eat. Also, learn to work out. That will come handy later.

6. Buy a cricket bat. You might not get that chance later.

7. Don't worry about contact lenses. You'll get soft lenses for astigmatism from Costco and also, you can wear glasses to cover for just the astigmatism part. (Your doctor would tell you that!)

8. Don't feel sad that you can't get the things needed for the projects in your Science Encyclopedia. Those things are very easily available in the US and you'll probably have them in your own house anyway! Same goes for the Nat Geo book on "Helping our animal friends" - you'll have pets, fish in a bowl, will hang a bird feeder and will be very well acquainted with the Humane Society.

(I really can't think of anything else. Seems like I did a good job when I was 18. Nothing much to change from that!)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Very wise and practical 'looking back' indeed! You have not much to regret - eh? Now buck up (or 'bugup' as Baba used to say)for the future.

bhut said...

fatay diso dear

Reea said...

Khyakzz!!!