SHEENA De WALL | arts & culture editor
A December graduate leaves a bit of advice for those who follow her in May.
It often seems that envy is wasted on the athletes, the musicians, the student leaders, the good looking, the rich, the popular, the funny and the smart. However, I reserve my envy for the freshman of APU, for they have time, and that is a prize no student government resolution, no touchdown and no pick-up line can hope to attain.
Looking back to Fall 2003, I can’t believe how quickly my time here at APU has passed. Now, in Fall 2007, I am a fifth year senior, looking to graduate in seven days, getting married in April, and moving to Japan with my fiancée shortly after that.
Often I look ahead to my future and forget that I am living now.
There are so many things that I wanted to accomplish during my time here – so many things that I wish I would or would not have done. But regardless of my envy for time or different experiences, each was necessary to bring me right where I am now.
My pace accelerates as I walk the well-worn path from classroom to career, from dorm roommates to holy matrimony. Once the end is in sight and the future is looming on the horizon, it can be hard to focus on anything else.
This university has been a place of amazing growth for me over the years. I was a “baby Christian” when I walked down Cougar Walk for the first time, as I had only accepted Christ two or three years before my freshman year. I used to go to every chapel, be a regular at the prayer chapel and had a hunger for God like I had never felt before.
Over the past few years I have skipped more chapels than I care to count and I rarely go to the prayer chapel. My hunger for God is still alive and kicking, but I don’t give Him the time I once did – I’ve filled my life to the brim, leaving only a cubbyhole for God.
I am afraid that many of us end up in the same boat. We end up pushing God further and further away instead of growing closer and closer to Him throughout our college experience. If I could change one thing about my time here at APU, it would be the amount of time that I spent with God. This may have made my college life less stressful in the end and far more focused.
Below are some of the other things I have learned here in my last four years and a semester as a guide for students either just starting or continuing at this wonderful place:
1. Ripping up a parking ticket doesn’t make it go away.
2. Losing to a rival team doesn’t make them better than you, but beating a rival team does make you better than them.
3. Being a college student doesn’t excuse you from recycling, being kind to people, or bathing.
4. You should own more than one pair of sheets.
5. Heritage is better than the Den, no question.
6. You’ll love again, I promise.
7. People who gloat about not having finals are asking for it.
8. There are about 100 restaurants around campus that aren’t Burger King, Jack in the Box, Taco King, or McDonald’s. Try one.
9. People know when you don’t know their name, so just ask.
10. Screaming into a pillow is a great therapy tool.
One very important piece of advice that should be emphasized: no one should take over 17 units of classes in any given semester if it is at all avoidable – no one. Not only should the number of units be taken into account, but also whether or not you may be working during the completion of that course-load.
I am currently enrolled in 16 units here at APU and four units at Citrus College. I am also the Arts & Culture Editor and the office manager for this publication. Though these two jobs are under the same roof, they are completely different jobs, each requiring a lot of time. Not only is 20 units too much, but 20 units and two jobs? Don’t do it.
Not that school and work can’t happen at the same time, it is just important to not overdo it. Just like most things in life, college can be done in sweet moderation if under a watchful eye.
Because of how busy I have been this semester, I have missed out on most shindigs with friends and I usually see my roommate only in her deepest slumber as I come home to get ready for bed. This is not a way to live. This is not how college should be.
Please, if you don’t take anything else that I say seriously, learn from this hardship that I have barely managed to overcome – don’t fill your life too full with classes and work because it’s not worth it in the end. 
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