ASSIGNMENTS:
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Anonymous
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
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REPORTS:
PREVIOUS NEXT
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Advice to myself at Eighteen, on College Boys.
- Knock on more doors. The first time you meet A., look him straight in the eyes and don't be so shy. Don't show how little you think of yourself. Go to the birthday party and speak freely, but don't be so nervously chattery. Don't betray how lonely and earnest you feel, how desperate you are for attention, for anyone's approval. Never believe you won't meet anyone else. In a year you will have made entirely new friends.
- When you're on the subway and A. tells you to kiss him, know that he was tricking you with everyone looking on, with the businessmen and shoppers and kids pressed all around, don't do it, and when you fight later, slap him across the face. Tell him he's selfish. Tell him the truth. It's what he wants you to do, and it will be satisfying, it will help break down the grudges that will fester and deepen and cause fight after fight and leave you crying against the wall so that your roommate won't hear. Get over it. One day you will be friends again, no matter who tells you to forget it.
- Be a better friend to J. He could use another friend, even though you've convinced yourself thoroughly that he is too cool for you. Look for all of the things you have in common and share your books. If you make friends with him now, you cannot fail later when you need each other, and you will, when you are both quite unexpectedly lost and alone. He will be good to you. He will remember your birthday.
- Pay more attention to your lab partner's friend, the one whose name you never remember, who has the gangly legs and the swimmer roommate and the faint Southern accent. He will always remember meeting you, and then you might remember meeting him, and it will take you much less time to get to know each other, you can kiss on Valentine's Day when you're left alone in the living room together, buzzed and sleepy and shyly talking about politics, and you might be able to stay together later, because there was finally enough time to figure things out.
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