Jean Nichols (C’05)
Tour Guide At The Ronald Reagan Library
As someone who graduated recently, what advice can you give to someone looking for a job in the midst of today’s turbulent economy?
—Scared Senior
It’s important to remember that even though things seem bleak now, they could turn around so quickly it’ll shock you. Like, you could be unemployed now and win the lottery tomorrow. Or you could be a sophomore in 1983 and go to your physics professor’s office hours and accidentally find yourself in the middle of one of his time travel experiments and end up in 2003. Not that that would ever happen to anyone ever. If it did, that person would probably go to their professor in 2003 and ask how they can get back to 1983 and learn that they can’t return to the past because they know too much and they can never let anyone know they’re from the past so they don’t disrupt the time stream, but again, that would never happen.
A lot of the guys on my hall have been teasing me more than I’d like this semester. How can I get them to stop?
—Bullied in Butcher
Bullies are the worst because they never get to know you long enough to understand the real reasons why you are how you are. People bullied me when I was at school. They made fun of the Michael J. Fox poster on my wall and that my favorite song was Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” and that I wasn’t Internet-ing all the time because I didn’t understand how to surf any of the webs. They said heinous things like, “Jean, you are totally a time traveler from the past.” Again and again I told them I wasn’t. I would say, “Nuh uh, that is totally bogus, guys” but they never believed me.
Even though I’ve been at school for a semester and a half, I still miss my family. Any tips for getting over this?
—Homesick in Hill
I, too, was homesick at school. I missed my old home, where we could go to the movies for $3.15. Where Joe Montana was everyone’s hero. Where we all bonded over fear of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. I’m not able to go back to my home, and it hurts every day. A lot of people will tell you to get a picture of a loved one to keep in your room. I put up a poster in my dorm of my high school crush and all that did was get me teased. My advice? Go home and stay there. We’re not all as lucky as you to have that option.
