J.J. Jenkins is a journalism freshman and Mustang Daily freshman columnist.
It’s time for some spring cleaning. We have made it through the harsh California winter, braving the 50 degree weather in jeans, and dare I say it, a sweatshirt. As I emerged from my hibernation, I began to notice I have accumulated a lot of baggage in my 23 weeks on campus.
First quarter textbooks litter my drawers waiting to be resold (at the bookstore’s pleasure of course), food in ziplock bags scatter my desk and a snowboard lays against the wall (and won’t be getting any use soon).
But when I say spring cleaning, I do not just mean packing up those winter boots that trip me every time I groggily wake up at for 10 a.m. class — early, I know.
In our first two quarters at Cal Poly we freshmen accumulated friends and commitments at unprecedented rates, sometimes bringing new obligations into our lives to assure we did not live a solitary existence on the fifth floor of Robert E. Kennedy Library for rest of the year.
I know administrators encourage freshmen to join a new club every quarter, and your mom still tells you to make new friends, or in my case, get a date. But let’s face it, if we really took that advice we would be stretched so thin (or balancing so many women) that our friends would be nearly meaningless and commitments would be become inconveniences.
So let’s start sweeping out your life.
That cute girl you met on the first night and whom you now say, “Hi,” to every time you pass her because you think you are friends — give it up. She’s way out of your league, and any time she says she wants to hang out then blows you off, she’s just wasting your time — not that I know from experience.
Or the guy you hung out with one night because your friend’s friends wanted to. Do not worry about keeping that relationship in tact.
It sounds harsh, but the only way you can get the best out of your real friends is to ditch, and not feel guilty about, your old ones. I’m all for being cordial and friendly, but even science says you can only have 150 friends at a time or else your brain basically overloads.
Next comes clubs and organizational commitments. Unlike your friends, with clubs, you can sign a piece of paper and you are good to go. I wish dates were so simple. So naturally, the e-mails and time you spend running all over campus, let’s say, chasing after a crashed plane to report on, rack up.
No, this is not how I am declaring my resignation to the Mustang Daily from the post of resident minion. I’ve actually decided to put that priority on top, even above classes, to my parent’s chagrin. I gave up studying for a midterm to run out to the far reaches of campus to take pictures of that crashed plane belly up in a creek.
Although I would not advocate blowing off a midterm to tend to your extracurriculars, having an activity you love to do so much that you will take a below average grade is a good feeling — until you get the midterm back.
If you feel yourself going through the motions and dreading the meetings, give it up. You’re only in college (hopefully) once and you deserve to clean out your list of commitments and reassess what you love to do.
But it’s not enough to just give up your old responsibilities, you must find new and better ones to fill the void. If not, you might find your “kill/death” ratio of “Call of Duty: Black Ops” racing past your grade point average.
Instead of worrying about your old crush, why not focus on the new one? Learn from your mistakes — maybe Sage is not the best idea for a first date — and put your newfound charm into action.
Instead of hating your life every time you check into a meeting, find a club that despises meetings. I’ve heard the trail runners are such a group, I just cannot get a hold of them.
So make a commitment to reassess your commitments, and I assure you, that does not require more meetings. Value your friends so much that you ditch that significant other — well only to find others, but you don’t have to tell them that.
Who knows, the time you now spend worrying about meeting with the Cal Poly vegetarians could be used to move those ziplock bags into the trash. Then, sell back those public speaking books you never touched or enjoy the sand and sun at Avila Beach.
So here’s to a new and improved spring quarter. Happy cleaning.