How to be an Alumnus/College-Free-Individual? – thoughts of a Yuppie, part 1

(I’m not sure if its general knowledge but yuppie is a term for Young Urban Professional. I had to learn that.)

This is the first fall in the last sixteen years (also known as the “conscious part of my life”) that I’m not gearing up for any sort of educational establishment. If you’re like me, a noob in the real world no longer bound by the margins of college-ruled paper (or in my case, engineering paper), then perhaps you find yourself with a light case of the twitches.

What are the twitches? It’s my term for the physical manifestation of a psychological condition wherein your body, out of habit and expectation, would lead you into an action that you deem completely unnecessary midway into it. Sometimes, your realization of its pointlessness comes as a sudden jerk, or a sudden twitch of the hand or foot–depending on the activity–the impulse being the result of a harsh and sharp “WAIT” in your mind, which is most of the time unnecessary in its intensity.

Cue picture that will interest you in reading this post. Presto!

An example, you ask? Here’s many.

A) Trying to put change in a nonexistent pocket because you are wearing a dress.
B)  Fingering your house keys because you thought the car keys would still be on there, go into a split-second panic, and then you realize you had given it to the valet.
C)  Use the wrong remote because you’re too lazy to buy a universal one.
D) Put away clothes due to reasons already specified.

Okay so maybe that last one is unique to me, but that’s only because I like my closet looking lived-in (by some crazy hobo who likes to sleep on t-shirts).

Whatever. Let me get to the point.

Point is, I’m no longer enrolled in school of any kind. So. How do I cure the office-supply-shopping withdrawals (Drafting pencils for $1.98/each FTW!)? How do I cure the brainless movement of my fingers on the keyboard, typing in the website that tells me my class text books? How do I cure the desire to go bargain-hunting on Amazon, Ebay, Half.com, and TextbooksRUs? (That last one might be made up.)

It’s not an easy task. It requires much self-control, let me tell you. I’ve put together a list that will keep me from buying stacks of copy paper, engineering paper, and scantrons, keep me from wondering what drink specials are coming this fall on the favorite party street that I now know very well…keep me from missing it all. Cause, for those who know, college really is a great time of your life. As a newborn Yuppie, settling into a new environment, I had to figure things out on my own.

1) Find a physical activity.

For a girl, all you gotta do is put on a sports bra and look cute. These guys are convinced that you need to do some crazy monkey moves to become attractive. Kudos to you, men. I think it's working.

Anything that you enjoy and can easily be used to persuade yourself to not veg on the couch. List includes running, swimming, rock-climbing, hiking, biking, dancing, dance classes (there is a difference! the sober kind), martial arts classes (not kidding), gym memberships, hunting, geocaching (so fun), paintballing, dance dance revolution (for us Asians at heart), basketball, baseball, volleyball. The list continues.

Or if you’re anything like these guys, and you want to look hot for the girls who run around the lakes. You can add “looking hot” to the list. It’s a physical activity, I assure you.

2) Officially learn a new atypical skill.

My Batl'eth. My Excalibur. Thou art awesome.

I do mean “officially” and I do mean “atypical.”  As in not just finishing the most recent Final Fantasy game that you had put on hold for a six months because of school. Or learning how to “cook.” That could mean any number of things.

Do something different. Curious. Something that no one would have thought of learning on doing. Like for me, I learned how to shuck oysters. Can you believe it?! So proud of me!

Shucking a dozen oysters took me at least an hour. But I did it. With my puny girly muscles! I am a very impressive specimen.

And depending on the length of how long you take to learn something, you could learn something new every weekend. Because, guess what. You no longer have homework. Oh My Gosh.

Need suggestions? Why not take classes on: Wine-tasting, Sushi making, any type of dancing (this also falls under physical activity, so you’d be killing two birds with one stone!), painting, carpentry, bike-making, build your own computer, cake decorating (not the same as baking a cake cause its an entire new set of tools), learning how to play a musical instrument, etc. As you can see I tried really hard to list things out for the guys too, but it was quite the effort. Haha.

3) Get into the arts! (Unless you were an art major or something of that type, in which case, ignore this)

One of my visits to New Orléans inspired an appreciation for Cajun art

I know it may not be your type of thing, maybe you don’t even have the resources, and if you don’t, skip this. I’m not trying to make you blow your money on things you don’t feel interested in (it’s really not that much money, some museum fees and whatever featured books in Barnes and Nobles), but I am trying to jog your memory of all the things you wanted to try when you were trying to get through that fifth all-nighter you were pulling for that stupid core class you never used in real life.

Theater, sculptures, even just learning a little more art history. Bernini, Michelangelo, Renoir, Frank Lloyd Wright. You’ll realize there is a world out there that makes life richer than a box of Chicken McNuggets (20 pc/$5 FTW!).

So, this is just the first part. I feel that I’ve been pretty long-winded already.  I should be doing some of these things right this very minute! But I wanted to share these things with those of you who are wondering what to do on your fall Saturdays if painting yourself up for a football game is no longer an easy option. Much love to you. <3

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