Decisions College Students Must Live With

Good Idea/Bad Idea
Good Idea: Eat daily, think healthy, live happily.
Bad Idea: Eating once a week, eating too much, not thinking, living with regret.
Good Idea: After eating food, wash your dishes.
Bad Idea: Leaving dishes unwashed for a month.
Good Idea: Drinking with friends.
Bad Idea: Drinking alone.
Good Idea: Social drinking.
Bad Idea: Drinking until you pass out.
Good Idea: Getting your work done.
Bad Idea: Getting your work done two weeks after it is due.
Good Idea: Talking to girls.
Bad Idea: Stalking girls.

Carbondale vs. Chicago
Carbondale: Several country radio stations.
Chicago: Several lost country folks.
Carbondale: 50 degrees equals jackets, sweaters and long pants.
Chicago: 50 degrees equals spring time.
Carbondale: You see someone driving around the block several times, assume he's lost.
Chicago: You see someone driving around the block several times, hide because something's about to go down.
Carbondale: Someone wears their hat crooked: fashion statement.
Chicago: Someone wears their hat crooked: hope it's just a fashion statement.
Carbondale: Be careful walking at night because of the lack of lights.
Chicago: Be careful walking at night, you might get shot at.
Carbondale: Saluki Express.
Chicago: CTA
Carbondale: Revolves around Wal-Mart and the SIU campus
Chicago: Revolves around the Maginificent Mile and Chicago's finest restaurants.
Carbondale: The best place to eat-Lonestar Steakhouse.
Chicago: The best place to eat-Gibson's steakhouse.
Carbondale: You can go to a party without worrying about the age of the chicks there.
Chicago: You can't go to the mall without worrying that the chick you are staring down is of age.

All in all, I sum it up in this. "I can't wait to go back to Carbondale, at least everyone there is of age or close to it. These girls can range between the ages of 13-20."-me during Thanksgiving Break at Woodfield Mall

Do not mess up college. There are very few experiences like this. You are away from your family, live alone where your only responsibility is to go to class, get your work done and graduate. You don't get to live like this often, don't blow it. If you make the wrong decisions, no matter what your excuse, it'll be hard to live with the idea of being a failure and just another statistic that proves that you don't belong in college. That is my motivation. To prove those who don't believe I belong in college wrong. To make my family proud of me, follow a family tradition.

11 days left until I go home and am locked up in my room, at work or doing laundry. I like it down here, because I am free, I answer to me, myself and I. But it will be good to be home because that is a very stable environment, compared to being here in Carbondale. I've got a second draft of a paper due Wednesday, a quiz Wednesday, Finals Questions due Wednesday, a test on Thursday, a speech and a final paper due on Friday and a final paper due next wednesday. Oh yeah, finals. I have two finals Monday and one on Wednesday. Good luck to me and my college companions making the effort to survive their first semester of college. Here's to us, the future (giggles) of the world.