Post-college advice to the undergraduate

Okay, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and there are a few things that I’d like to tell all you college students out there. Things that I wish people had told me when I was in college and why they were important.

1. The undergraduate major that you pick is nominal. Unless you want to become a doctor, engineer, or work in any other field in which the skill set is highly-specialized, it really boils down to the experiences that you have- the academic experiences, your extracurricular activities, jobs, or internships. When you’re in a job interview, you’re less likely to be quizzed on what you learned in school; rather, you’re marketing your ensemble of skills, showing what you can offer that company, and perhaps being presented with a case study to quiz you on work that you would do if hired.

So study what you love. Or study what you think will get you an easy 4.0. Whatever. I challenged myself while in college, taking multiple languages and rigorous economic courses for a demanding (& very fulfilling!) major before I realized I could have just as well done an easy major, effortlessly scored a higher GPA, and had more time to do paid work and intern.* Which brings me to point 2.

French women (don’t) get fat.

French women don’t get fat.
French people are all cultured, charming, and exquisitely dressed.
French men make the greatest lovers. They are sensual, intellectual sex gods.
French cuisine? Divine.
The French have no sense of time, they are more relaxed.
La vie en rose, la joie de vivre, la poésie et la beauté. The French have an art of living.

Many of the above are accepted as common truths about French people. Or at least, they are on the other side of the Atlantic in the States, where France is more of an abstract, quaint European country. Cobblestoned walkways. Delicate grannies walking tiny coiffed yorkshire terriers. Dark-eyed women in smart Chanel skirts. Debonair men cradling the ubiquitous cigarette between sullen lips.

This picture is France. But there is another France, one that not many people know about. The one where McDonald’s is always packed at midi, with high school students, college kids, and businessmen alike queueing up for un Big Mac for lunch. The one where free, public bathrooms outside of restaurants don’t exist. Where women over forty commit the fashion faux-pas of wearing cheetah-print tights under checkered miniskirts.

I will never forget the time when I was making an omelette in the common kitchen in my residence in Poitiers.

This was in 2009, when I was living in a dorm with many other students. A girl came into the kitchen, looked at my frying pan, and asked me in French, “What is that?”

A Curly Hair Proclamation

While reading through books and articles for career advice, I often come across information regarding proper dress and attire for interviews and what to wear once you’ve attain the job. Astonishingly, many columnists and writers seem to share the belief that “sleek, polished hair”, or straight, hair is more “professional.” One writer went so far to say that “a blow dry is a must” for the first day of work and if you google “professional hairstyle” photos of straight styles with little to no wave pop up. What’s most striking is that when I read these columns the underlying logic seems to be that curly hair is lazy hair. It’s distracting, it’s unruly, it needs to be tamed. If you wear your hair curly, it’s because you were too indolent to do anything else with it.

Let’s get this straight: curly hair is not lazy hair. It boggles my mind that I even have to type this. The majority of the world’s population has curly hair, yet this hair type is so hopelessly misunderstood.

To all of you clueless about how curly, coily, kinky, wavy, and frizzy hair works, here are the cold, hard facts:

1. Curly hair is high maintenance and the curlier your hair is, the more high maintenance it is.