Dear Devil’s Advocate,

I can’t believe I am already a junior! I am really starting to freak out. I am going to be in the real world in just over a year and a half. I just realized that I wasted a lot of time over the last two years.

My friends have all been really busy working and doing internships and extracurricular activities, while I have been doing a whole lot of nothing.

I feel like I have nothing to show any future employers once I get out of school. I wasted my first 2 years of school and now I don’t know what to do.

Sincerely,

Afraid Freddy

Dear Freddy,

Groucho Marx once said, “Time flies like an arrow; Fruit flies like a banana.” I don’t know what that means, but it sounds neat. Seriously, though, time flies fast and before you know it, college is over. But you are mistaken about something. You aren’t going to be in the real world in a year and a half. You are in it right now.

Everything counts. There is no “fake world” and “real world.” Well, there is a real world, but that show is about as far away from real as it gets. Anyway, you can’t wait for things to come to you.

You need to take charge and go out to the world. What you do now will greatly impact your future. So, don’t just sit there. Do something.

If you want to be a high school teacher, then go to a local high school and volunteer to tutor some kids for a couple hours each week.

If you want to be a photographer, then go out and take some photographs and display them on the web site. If you want to be a journalist, then write for the school newspaper. What are you waiting for? Do it now!

Once you do it, show it to people and ask them what they think. If you are tutoring someone, ask a teacher to observe you and give you constructive criticism. If you are becoming a photographer, show people your portfolio and ask what they think.

You should take this advice and use it to better yourself. It will also allow you to make connections in the professional world.
It’s not hard. It just takes some initiative. You don’t need someone to hire you in order for you to do what you want to do. It looks a lot better if you do it by yourself instead of doing it for a paycheck.

Sincerely,

Devil’s Advocate

Dear Devil’s Advocate,
I don’t understand it. I am a single guy and I have had a string of bad luck lately. I will see a girl and start talking to her casually. We will get along well and things start looking good. After a few conversations, I start to get excited.

However, every time, without fail, she will drop this bomb: “Oh, my boyfriend loves that too!” It’s getting to the point where if I am interested in a girl, I can be reasonably sure that she has a boyfriend. It’s like I am only attracted to girls who are already taken. Help me!

Sincerely,

Single Steve
Dear Steve,

There’s two possibilities here. The first is that you actually keep running into girls with boyfriends. The second is that these girls just want you to stop talking to them, so they say that they have boyfriends. You are probably annoying them.

Let’s just pretend for a minute that they all actually do have boyfriends. If this is the case, then you have some horrible luck. If this is the case, then there is only two words of advice you need: keep trying.

Just keep doing what you are doing and you will meet a girl you like who doesn’t have a boyfriend eventually. And who says that just because she has a boyfriend, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t talk to her? You can still be friends, right?

However, you may also just be annoying single girls. Dropping the “Boyfriend Bomb” in conversation is the number one indicator that a girl doesn’t want to talk to you, followed closely by the “Stop-Talking-To-Me-I-Think-You-Are-Smelly-And-Annoying Bomb.”

In order to fix this, you need to do two things. First, you need to figure out what it is about you that is annoying and then fix it. Second, you need to practice talking to girls because you obviously aren’t doing it correctly.

Sincerely,

Devil’s Advocate