“Wear sunscreen.”
-Mary Schmich

Ladies and gentlemen of Gustavus Adolphus College.

Wear gloves.

If there is anything that can help you survive the long walks from class to the Market Place and back over these next few months, this would be it.

If you don’t wear gloves your skin will get dry and crack, and it will hurt probably more than you’d think. Don’t get me wrong, there are far worse ways to ruin your January Interim Experience, but none are as easy to prevent.

I don’t claim any special benefits of retrospect or experience. At least not yet. As always, the reader is free to choose how to value these suggestions, if at all. If you choose not to, I’ll probably never know. But I’ll list them off anyway. Starting now.

• Enjoy the freedom and fun of January Interim Experience. Oh never mind. You won’t realize how much freedom you had until it’s all over, even if you’ve been through it before. Then you’ll wish you had drunk less and read more, played video games less and played in the snow more.
• Throw snowballs. Don’t get mad if somebody throws one at you. Your clothes will dry off eventually.
• Read.
• Get to know the people you find yourself around. You’ll never know everything there is to know about them, but your efforts are worth plenty on their own.
• At some point in human history, it became weird to say something nice to a stranger. Break this rule once in a while.
• You are weird. Remind yourself of this from time to time, and then remind yourself that the alternative is much worse.
• Listen to others. Whether or not you think you are interested, you are both people, and that should be enough to keep your attention. Pay attention. It’s the second most valuable commodity you own, and it’s worthless if you don’t spend it. The first is yourself.
• Share yourself. It’s the greatest gift you can give somebody.
• Take naps.
• Many people try to change the world, and most of them wind up disappointed. It is much more manageable to try and change your world instead. You’ll get a lot farther, and nobody else is doing it.
• You never signed a contract with the world. You don’t owe it anything, and it’s lucky to have you. Take some things for granted. Love, for instance.
• Do your homework, but be careful not to enjoy it too much. Overworking is a drug that can be difficult to recognize because it doesn’t make you feel good.
• Neither your spouse, your daughter, your dog, nor the King of France will ever ask you about your GPA.
• Get a C-minus at least once.
• Don’t drink diet pop unless you honestly prefer the taste.
• Don’t hate your body. It’s never done anything to deserve it.
• Check your e-mail less.
• Be firm in your own beliefs, and spend time thinking about them. They define you. You may not be right, but that’s O.K.
• Nobody else is sure that they’re right either. Being wishy-washy is a good way to make sure you’re always wrong. You have the power to define truth for yourself. Use it wisely.

And trust me on the gloves.