Guide to a New Life - How to Arrive in Style
Guide to a New Life
By Cyrus B. Alvarez
Chapter 1 – How to Arrive in Style
YOU'RE fresh out of a disastrous relationship and you're tired of being a bum, so you decided to go back to school after more than two years of `exploring the world'.
The first thing you should do is to figure out which school to honor with your presence.
Choose a school with a relatively high standard of education and a lot less stressful than the previous one. Reject the one who wants you to start from scratch. After all, you spent four years in a top university in the country and it would be a pity if the school won't accredit at least some of the courses you've taken and actually passed (even though your transcript is crawling with 3.0s and 5.0s).
Don't go far. Choose a school located near your hometown so that you could go home and `unwind' every weekend.
Top the admission test to impress the school administrators and to announce that you have arrived.
Look for a boarding house that can fit your taste. Choose a place where you can feel at home and at the same time have a little privacy. If you couldn't find such a place cheap enough for your parents' budget, just choose the one where you at least feel a little at home even without the privacy.
The day before the first day of classes, ask your new roommates if there are any rules, written or unwritten, that you should know about your new school. Cringe when he tells you that you have to wear a uniform. Suppress your urge to debate about how `highschoolish' that is. Shut up and follow the rules. Don't make waves just yet. You're new, after all.
On the first day of classes, get up early and go to school an hour before your 7AM class. Try to be patient as you wait for your teacher who finally comes a little after 8.
Be confident as you walk in the halls of your new school. Suppress a smile when you hear other students whispering about you, where you came from, and those sorts of things.
Keep silent, though. You have to keep them mystified about your personality. Always walk alone. Smile to everyone who smiles at you. Let them admire your looks and your intelligence. Or let them hate you for being `too good to be true'. Just let them think what they want to think.
Meet up almost everyday with your friend, Joshua, who is graduating this semester. He is, after all, the only person here who really knows you.
Agree when he asks you to submit your stories to the student publication.
Then, agree once more when the student publication asks you to join a contest for them. Win the contest.
Try to remain grounded as people start to revere you.
You have arrived.