College is a time of exploration and a time to experience new things. You will come in contact with people and ideas that you never knew existed. You will be given the opportunity to expand your mind and to see the world from many different viewpoints. The only thing you have to do is keep your mind open and be willing to consider and accept things that may initially seem foreign to you.
You will often find that the people that seem to be the most sure about the way the world works and unwavering in what they believe are most often the ones with closed minds. You will also find that the people that think they know everything often know the least. It is their ignorance that allows them to be so sure of themselves. The more you know, the more you realize you know very little.
If you go to college thinking you know everything and are rigid in the way you think about the world, you will miss out on ideas and ways of thinking that can only make your life better. Not every new thing you will come in contact with will help you. Acting on many ideas will only hurt you. The trick is, while keeping your mind open, you must also use good sense in order to avoid the pitfalls of questionable thought or acting without thinking. Doing something simply because someone else does it or simply following along with the crowd is often a recipe for disaster.
Many a young man has sat in my office needing legal representation as a result of conduct they participated in just because others were doing it. It is hard to go against the grain or leave the party when everyone seems to be having a good time. You must always keep your head and realize that what you do has consequences. Keeping an open mind does not mean being a sheep. I can tell you that, in my lifetime, saying yes has caused me much more trouble than saying no. There is nothing wrong with saying yes, as long as you look before you leap.
Consider the way you looked at the world in the 6th grade and the way you see the world now that you have graduated high school. Do you think the same way now? The one thing you will find in life is that most people change the way they think over time. That is because people learn and have experiences that change the way they view the world. More knowledge and experience allows you to make better decisions. Experience and education don’t guarantee better decisions, but they sure do help.
Going into college, you are like a brand new penny. You are nice and shiny, but you haven’t been around very much. As you learn more about the world, the shine may tarnish a little, and you may take a nick or two. The bad times will come along with the good times. That is what gives you character. A shiny penny only stays shiny if it is sheltered. Sheltered pennies have not seen the world.
Go out and experience what the world has to offer, but do so thoughtfully. The youthful shine you carry into college may not last until graduation, but the shine inside which is polished by being open to the world and all it has to offer, will last forever. In fact, the inner shine will continue to grow brighter throughout your life if you allow it. That is true for all of us, even those of us way up in the CHEAP SEATS!
Bill James is a criminal defense attorney and co founder of the James Law Firm, with offices in Little Rock, Conway, and Fayetteville, Ark. He can be contacted at Bill@JamesFirm.com.