John Lennon got a lot of things right, but at least in regard to your time at Binghamton University, we have to respectfully disagree with the veracity of “time you enjoyed wasting, is not time wasted.”
We don’t begrudge you those 20 minutes you’ll spend daydreaming at your tiny, poorly-built dorm room desk all those days. (Or is it 40 minutes? Stop procrastinating.)
Afterward you’ll go to the dining hall and find it’s still unappetizing. And then you’ll study for a bit and not remember a word you read, and then you’ll head to State Street to get hammered. Maybe you’ll wake up for class in the morning, maybe you’ll watch “The People’s Court.”
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It’s a blast. But along with class, those things are not all there is to any college, let alone Binghamton. Learning how to ballroom dance, working on political campaigns, putting together a publication — it’s in those activities that, for many, college actually takes place.
If you look, almost any interest you have is shared and explored at BU. And in most cases, you can be involved as much or as little as you want.
Though Binghamton isn’t Cornell, dotted with chateaux doubling as fraternity houses that come complete with in-home cooks and wine-tasting revelries every other Tuesday, greek life is prevalent, at least on the West Side.
You go to their parties, and particularly in the case of the pre-professional fraternities, you might make some connections for your post-graduation life. But fraternities and sororities aren’t for everyone, and they’re not the only thing that looks good on a resume. Joining a student group can provide more real-world experience and connections than any class can give you.
You might not know yet what you want to do after BU, and in fact, as a freshman it might be best not to. You shouldn’t take to something for the sake of resume-building anyway, it will quickly become analogous to homework. You do something because you want to — a freedom most lose after college.
From an older sibling, a friend or anybody else, you’ve heard some variation of it: “College is the best time of your life, man. It goes by like that, and once you’re in the miserable 9-to-5 world, you’ll wish you could go back forever.”
Yeah, OK. That guy’s probably right. We’re not advocating living in the past once you graduate. But let’s say you choose to do so: Just make sure daydreams aren’t your only memories.