by Melissa Aguilar |
“What am I going to do with my life?” is a question that haunts many college students, gradually getting louder and louder as the time of graduation marches closer.
Meg Jay, author of “The Defining Decade: Why your twenties matter and how to make the most of them now” gave a presentation, “Embracing the Defining Decade,” on Sunday at the Chiles Center, with some solutions to twenty-somethings’ most pressing questions.
Dan McGinty, director of the Dundon-Berchtold Institute for Applied Ethics, introduced the talk, as well as Amy Dundon-Berchtold and Jim Berchtold, who donated $15 million to the University on Friday.
Over the summer, the university purchased 1,000 copies of Jay’s book and distributed 849 of those to current seniors. There were 1,008 people in attendance Sunday night.
The talk was followed by a 10-minute question and answer period and an opportunity for a book signing by Jay.
On making the most of the 20s:
“Whatever it is you want to change about yourself, now is a good time to do it.”
On the “Benjamin Franklin Effect”:
“When you do a favor for someone, you start to like that person more by doing the favor. It’s good to be good. There’s a helper’s high that goes along with being generous. When you take your problem to someone else, you’re giving them the opportunity to be magnanimous, to be generous, to be altruistic.”
On the “strength of weak ties”:
“No matter what it is that you want, it’s going to come from outside the inner circle. There are countless people who are willing and able to help you get what you want.”
On choosing as a child vs. choosing as an adult:
“It’s not cheese toast and pokemon. It’s ‘I want to be a singer’ or ‘I want to find a partner.’ It’s scarier to want things.”
On twenty-somethings helping one another:
“Be professionally curious about what other people are doing. You have a lot to offer each other.”
On young entrepreneurs:
“Work for your heroes. You’ve got to have something to offer as an entrepreneur. Even though you work alone, you can’t thrive alone.”
On deciding between two career paths:
“It’s a good problem to have. Start something and see how it goes. Think, ‘Which one do I really want to start with?’ They may come together.”
On deciding on a career or a location first:
“The 20s can be a very rootless time, which can be very fun and can be very taxing. (Ask yourself) where would I like to put down roots?”
Melissa Aguilar is the copy editor for The Beacon. She can be reached at aguilarm16@up.edu.
