Sandy Summers/DN
said, “Americans need to think more inter
nationally, no matter which career they
choose.”
Choosing to be a foreign student had
added challenges, Tan said.
“Trying to gel to know Americans is
difficult, because everyone is so busy with
their own schedules.”
He said he hadn’ t been shocked culturally
and realized that people were similar.
“What we all want is to be successful and
satisfied.
“I believe that everyone learns at his or
her own pace. It just comes naturally; if you
like something, you will spend a lot of time
doing it and do well at it.”
When Ronnie Tan marches forward to
receive his degree on May 7, he probably
won’t be thinking about his achievements at
UNL. He will rememberapicccofadvicc his
brother once told him.
“It’s not what you have achieved; it’s
what you arc going to achieve.”
By Lisa Sickert
Staff Reporter
The 2,000 recent survivorsofUNL will soon
march to “Pomp and Circumstance” in the Bob
Devancy Sports Center and receive their ticket
to the real world.
These graduates are survi vors of University
of Nebraska-Lincoln administration, financial
aid bureaucracy,parking headaches,dead weeks
that arc anything but dead and a number of all
nighters.
Their experiences make them qualified to
dole out valuable advice to undergraduates who
hope to be in their shoes in two, four or maybe
even six years.
Most students arrive at college having no
idea what to study. But it’s not possible to
graduate without a major, so how do you go
about choosing one?
Choosing a major
Matt Mutschler, who majors in human de
velopment and the family, said to start unde
clared. If you take a variety of classes, he said,
you’ll eventually find where you belong.
It’s important to choose something in which
you have a genuine interest, said Angela
Simpson, a middle school education major.
Wendy Wagner, a communication studies
major, said, “Base your decision on enjoyment,
not financial factors or prestige.”
Lori Sorensen, who majors in broadcasting,
couldn’t agree more.
“Do something that doesn’t feel like work,”
she said. One’s decision about a major is not
permanent.
Jeremy Blauser, an accounting major, said,
“You can always switch your major if it’s not
good for you. But switch early before you get too
far behind.”
Involvement
Another accounting major. Matt Maser, said
to “buckle down’’ in your first two years and
study but also spend those years getting in
volved on campus,
“Get involved as soon as you can,” Maser
said. “If you have questions, look in the Daily
Nebraskan or go to the Office #for Student
Involvement.”
Maser also encourages students to not hold
stereotypes about people or certain organiza
tions.
Blauscr said to “look into things interesting
to you, not what people tell you to get involved
in.
“Other things are important besides study
ing,” he said. Being involved adds to the college
experience.
“The more involved you get the more fun
you’ll have,” Simpson said. “Sample every part
of student life. Accept all different kinds of
people and different ways of doing things.”
Sorensen said you shouldn’t join an organi
zation just to have something to put on your
resume.
“Do it because you like it and it’s something
important to you,” she said. z'
Wagner said you can learn more fronr cam
pus involvement than you can in class.
It’s important to get involved, Mutschler
said, because the decisions made by some orga
nizations will affect you.
Chris Post, who is majoring in business
administration, encourages involvement be
cause “if you want to see changes made, then
you must do something positive. You need to
speak up to get things changed.”
Megan Schuldt, an accounting major, also
encouraged getting involved on campus, as
well as the community, early.
“Get involved during your freshman and
sophomore year. Meet as many people as pos
sible,” Schuldt said.
The more you work with people, the better
prepared you’ll be in the future, she said. Be
coming a leader on campus will help you get
jobs later, she said. --
Job search
Networking is important when looking for a
job. Simpson said to consult everybody you
knew when you began the job search.
“Make sure you have all your bases cov
ered,” she said. It’s also beneficial to have
experience in different areas, she said.
Mutschlcr and Simpson said to start the
search early.
“If you graduate in May, start in February,”
Mutschlcr said. Sorensen said with a laugh,
“Start when you’re a sophomore.”
Mutschlcr said searching for a job was a
pain. Blauser didn’t have too hard of a time
finding his job, because he used the services at
the Career Planning and Placement Center, he
said. He encouraged people to see what the
office could do for them.
Post said it helped to have internships, be
cause they were a good learning experience.
Maser said, “Go through with a job search
even if you have other plans, like going to
graduate school.” Wagner said, “Give up and
go to graduate school.”
1 n the end, Sorensen advised al 1 undergradu
ates to “do all the things you’ve ever wanted to
do in Lincoln now,bccaase all the sudden you’ll
realize you only have one month left to do all
those things.”
n
Things that will be missed by May
graduates:
DN graphic
It’s hard to believe I will be among the
graduate saying goodbye to the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln on May 7.
We will say goodbye to all the wonderful
attractionsofcollegc 1 ife and hello to the buckle
down world of work.
No longer will we walk quickly from class to
class in the drizzling rain.
Instead we will drive to work in the comfort
of our car, and if we’re lucky we will walk less
than 50 yards to our cozy office.
We will say goodbye to staying up late,
sleeping in late, walking to the bars, Broyhill
Fountain, Imperial Palace, weekends that start
on Thursday night and constantly being around
people our own age.
Those of us who are joining the work force
will say hello to getting up with the sun, going
to bed with the sun, weekends that start on
Friday at 5 p.m., falling asleep at the bars,
cooking our own rice and working with people
the same age as our parents.
Even though I never took ad vantage of sleep
ing in late, except fora few rare mornings,just
knowing that I could made all the difTcrcncc in
the world. I had a choice.
In the “real world” there is no choice. Sleep
ing late equals an angry boss equals lower pay
equals less food equals no money to pay the
bills.
We w ill say goodbye to friendly hellos on our
way to class. No more will we walk through a
college campus greeting our friends with a
cheery “Hi, how arc you?”
And yes, the hardest part, we will have to say
goodbye toour best friends. Those uncondition
ally loving friends with whom we have lived
during our college years. Those who have
smelled our stinky feet and still shared an
amaretto sour fishbowl with us at Duffy's.
I must admit that for me and for a few others,
it will be hard to say goodbye to college life.
We will have to say goodbye to cheap Ne
braska football games, basketball games and
parking. But wait, I guess those who aren’t
graduating will be saying goodbye to those
luxuries also.
But we’re the lucky ones. When our children
and grandchildren ask us about our days at
UNL, we’ll be the ones who can say, “Yeah,
little Jimmy, I remember the days when football
tickets were only $50, and we didn’t even have
to sit in the nosebleed section.”
It won’t be so hard to say goodbye to some
aspects of college life, such as parking hassles,
studying on Sunday nights and trekking through
rain with a broken umbrella to get to a class that
has been canceled.
We won’t be here next fall to stand in long
lines to buy books in 90-degree weather. We
won’t gel those college coupon books. We’ll
never gel to relax in the green space.'
But maybe somewhere out there in this ex
citing new world, we will find a green space of
our own.
Our brains arc filled with knowledge. We
are set to conquer the world.
If we’re lucky, we say hello to a job — and
money.
Employers will be begging us to work for
them, and soon we will be rolling in the dough,
buying a new car and moving into that two
story house with a whirlpool built into the back
deck.
Wait. That was the part of the column that
was just a dream.
I have a feeling most of our expectations
about life after college will soon be shattered.
Instead of saying hello to money and relax
ation, we’ll be saying hello to health insurance,
rent, car insurance, grocery bills, 1 ife insurance,
marriage, home insurance, doctor bills and
more insurance.
We’ll be saying hello to life and all its harsh
realities.
From a study recently released by the U.S.
Department of Education, we learned that more
than one-third of college graduates enrolled in
further education just one year after graduation.
I thought we were done with the studying for
a while.
And then we learned that 44 percent of the
graduates said they were in jobs that didn’t
require a college degree anyway.
Was this all for nothing?
Looking back on my years at UNL, I think
not.
We may not find jobs right away, wc may not
be rich right away, and although wc think wc
may not have learned much at UNL, we did.
But now it’s time to leave. Time to say
goodbye.
I don’t know if I’ll shed tears of sorrow the
day I leave UNLor if I ’ll rejoice with happiness.
. But I can be sure of one thing.
It was worth it.
Kristine l,ong is a senior news-editorial major and
the Daily Nebraskan wire editor.
