Five Transferible Life Concepts Learned in College

The lessons that I learned from my active participation in college are many, and I could probably write a small book, or at least dedicate this blog to them. Instead, here are five transferable attributes that I learned in college.

There’s absolutely no such thing as “college material.”

I’ve sometimes heard the phrase “she/he isn’t really college material.” Really? Nothing could be more inappropriate or discouraging to an individual who is pursuing college. I still don’t know what these people’s definition of “college material,” is. It’s possible that if somebody told me at age 18 that I wasn’t “college material,” I might have believed them. I wasn’t the strongest or most dedicated student in high school; making honor role a few times, and just barely maintaining a GPA of 3.0 at the time of my high school graduation. My parents for the most part, chose to let me make my own decisions regarding higher education. So, I enrolled at a community college, and tested into the lowest level of classes offered, and worked my way up. Six years, two colleges, and a constant drive to finish concluded my undergraduate education. There’s really no such thing as “college material.” If an individual thinks she or he can do it, and they are willing to put in the effort, anybody can be successful in college. Even if you aren’t the strongest academic, or are a first-generation student like myself. If you want it, go for it; and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise!

multitasking

Who says guys can’t multitask? Apart from my first year of college, I attended school full-time, and worked part time, and I worked every type of shift: day, swing, graveyard, and weekends. I learned to work under deadline, and manage competing priorities. Research papers and work reports were often done side by side, and almost any physical space could be turned into a makeshift office or study space.

If Done Correctly, the 9-5, Mon-Fri work week Doesn’t Exist in College.

In the roughly seven years it took for me to earn my Bachelors Degree, I can count on one hand how many weekends I wasn’t either studying or working. Unlike the stereotypical image of a young 20 something rolling out of bed late on a Monday morning after an action-packed weekend of epic partying and binge drinking, myself and many other college students find ourselves working, studying, and keeping up in classes. Yeah, my weekends were action-packed alright, packed with homework assignments and a job. Perhaps the 24-7, always-conected mentality of modern western society places less emphasis on down time, and more expectations on an individual to produce more. As hard as it was, I’ve learned to own my goals, and accomplish the required tasks to reach them.

Creativity, Flexibility, and Adaptability

Sometimes the answer to an assignment, or the solution to a problem (academic or other) isn’t always obvious. As a result, I learned to view creativity as an asset. Mastering academic subjects non-visually isn’t always the easiest task, and sometimes the conditions for learning aren’t ideal. Being creative, flexible, and adaptive are a must for overcoming challenges and breaking down learning barriers. No matter how sophisticated, technology will fail at some point; electronic learning options may simply not be accessible; or course concepts may not be presented in a way that gyves with your learning style. My success in several classes during my undergraduate career was contingent upon my ability to find a solution to one or multiple problems, and to do it quickly. Sometimes the lowest tech solutions were the answers to the highest priority problems. For example, I didn’t have access to diagrams and graphs for use in a Micro Economics class. My solution? Raised lined graph paper, and several strands of wax-covered yarn, called Wiki Sticks. I think they are intended for craft projects, but they sure helped me to understand the concepts of marginal utility, supply, demand, price points, and many others.

Social Savvy

During my time in college, I interacted with a lot of people: professors, disability support staff, teacher’s assistants, supervisors and co-workers, classmates, roommates, and social service professionals. Every 11 weeks, I introduced myself to new professors, classmates, and depending on the course, a teacher’s assistant or two. All of this interaction gave me a lot of experience in a variety of social settings, and uncovered my interest in public relations.
There is often a stereotype or stigma (they are two different concepts) that accompany a person with a visual impairment. Not wanting to be the only guy on campus who went through his entire degree program knowing none of his classmates, I made it a point to meet and get to know at least three of my classmates in each of my classes. The advantages of getting to know your classmates are many. I made friends, knew more people in my degree program, and found it pretty easy to collaborate with classmates on group work.

The Moral of the Story?

There’s no such thing as college and the real world, rather college is one part of the real world, and there’s a lot of positive, transferable skills that can be learned in an academic setting. If you have any interest in attending college, go for it!! Don’t let anybody hold you back, explore your options, and settle on a school that works for you. If you want it bad, and you are willing to work for it, anybody can obtain a college education.

Landing A Job 1.0

As graduation approaches, the job hunt is on. According to the American Foundation for the Blind, roughly 70 percent of people who are visually impaired or blind are unemployed. Those are some very scary statistics. However, I simply refuse to be an unemployed person with a visual impairment, so I’m doing all that I can to obtain gainful employment. If you have a visual impairment and are reading this, know that you are not alone. I hope this post will give some insight into what it takes to avoid becoming another high unemployment statistic.

The Power of Networking

I quickly learned the power of networking. We hear about networking all the time, but what is it and how does one network? First of all, it’s important to employ a resourceful mindset. Anybody that you know has the potential to be a link in your professional network chain. If you are finding yourself a little short on professional contacts, you may have to go looking for network contacts. I think the best and easiest way to establish this is by asking professionals in your field of interest if they would allow you to conduct an informational interview. This social exchange gives you the opportunity to create contacts out of complete strangers, as well as raise awareness about your intent for employment without directly asking for a job. You can start by contacting the human resources department at your organization of interest, introducing yourself, and asking to be connected to somebody in your job of interest. Most people are open to this concept, because people love to talk about themselves. Remember to plan ahead, think about what it is you want to know, write out strong questions, take good notes, and be very appreciative of people’s time and information.
Perhaps you have one or many professional contacts. Use this to your advantage and reach out. Maybe your contact knows of the perfect job for you, or maybe they know somebody who knows somebody who is looking for your skill-set. Either way, take advantage of people who want to see you succeed.

Writing More than 140 Characters Still Gets You somewhere

In today’s fast-paced society, writing has been shortened to somewhere between 140 characters and a few short sentences. A few months ago, I read Richard Branson’s new book, The Virgin Way. If you need a little inspiration, and or you want to know how one man dropped out of high school and still did well for himself, I recommend you read The Virgin Way. One concept that stood out to me was the positive effect of writing a letter to somebody. I have found this to be true in my own job searches. In keeping with the times, an email with appropriate subject line and good grammar/spelling will do. Though I haven’t received a solid job offer as a direct result of my writing a letter or email to a professional contact yet, the action of sending that letter has opened up other potential job leads.
If you find yourself wanting to send a letter of interest to a key contact of a specific organization such as a Human Resources Manager or President/CEO, there’s a relatively easy way to find their email address.
First, get their name. If it’s a CEO or other top leadership figure, and depending on the type of organization, you can usually find her or his full name on a bio page of the organization’s website.
Then, you will need to figure out how the organization structures their email addresses. A good place to start is the employment or media inquiries sections of the website. Sometimes a specific contact and email address will be listed. Take note of how this person’s email address is structured. After doing this, apply the same format to your desired contact. This doesn’t always work, because some organizations may have more than one person with the same name, and as a result, may put numbers before the at sign in the email address. Still, this method is a good way to start when attempting to develop cold contacts. If this method doesn’t work, call or email the human resources department and ask to be connected to your new contact. Remember, human resources is there to be a resource for humans wether they work for the organization or not.

Practice Strategic Communication

Everybody has the ability to use strategic communication to her or his advantage. Actually, you probably use it often without realizing it. Do you talk or write differently to the various groups of people in your life? If you answered yes, then you are using strategic communication.
You can also use this concept in your job search. When communicating with potential employers or professional contacts, think about the best form of communication to use. Remember, apart from your resume, professional skills, and personal attributes, all you’ve got is the message that you want to transmit to your contact. It’s very important that you consider the best method for communicating with this individual. Some people love email, while some prefer speaking over the phone. If you are networking with a person for the first time, you may not know what method they prefer, so it’s a bit of a shot in the dark. You could try calling the human resources department and asking for the best way to contact this person.

The Moral of the Story

Finding a job non-visually isn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done, then again nobody said it would be either easy or hard. It’s important to realize in most instances the job opportunities will not come to you; but instead you will have to go to them. So get out there, meet people, ask favors from total strangers, ask good questions, be grateful for any information given to you, be resourceful, developed your professional network, don’t be afraid to take risks, and put your all into it. Remember, it takes a lot of good ideas to create some great ideas, and it may only take a few great ideas to achieve personal and professional success.

Just in Time for Valentine’s Day: 9 Reasons Wy You Should Consider Dating A Guy Who is Visually Impaired

*One visually impaired guy’s somewhat humorous, but realistic list of reasons for why a woman should give dating a man who is visually impaired a try.


1. We are good listeners: Women often complain that men only listen to what they want to hear, and are often not really listening at all. Consider this: A visually impaired person relies on hearing as a form of communication, as a means of orientation, and to gain knowledge about the environment around them. These attributes make up a good listener. We do it all the time, and if we don't listen, there's a good chance we will get hit by a car while crossing an intersection or miss an important concept being discussed during a lecture or meeting.


2. We are good talkers: Because we are visually impaired we do not have the luxury of using most nonverbal forms of communication. Therefor, we must make up roughly 80% of communication with speech alone. The benefit to being a good talker is it reduces confusion of nonverbal cues. So, if you struggle with nonverbal communication and its somewhat ambiguous meanings, try dating a visually impaired guy; we are really good at making up for our lack of nonverbal communication through speech.


3. We are touchy-feely: So you want a guy who is more touchy feely huh? Give a visually impaired guy a chance! We are used to touching all sorts of things; touch is one of the tools that help us make up for our lack of eyesight, as well as form the basis of literacy through the use of Braille. We are also very good at feeling things. Happy, sad, angry, frustrated, hopeful, stereotyped, discriminated, rejected and optimistic are some of the feelings that are sometimes magnified because of our visual impairment. Remember, we are not good at the whole nonverbal communication thing, so we are more likely to talk to a woman about our feelings and emotions, which appears to be what women like to talk about at times.


4. We won't judge you based only on physical appearance: Remember, we can't see very well or even at all, so if you are self-conscious about your looks, relax, we aren't even looking! If you are the woman who has a lot to offer and believes there's more to MR. Perfect than just looks alone, a visually impaired guy as your lover may be the answer. This is not to say guys who are visually impaired have lowered standards, or have no concept of physical attraction. Instead, some of us choose to define physical attraction as something more than just looks. We have skipped the physical looks thing and are already checking you out on much deeper levels: Do we have the same interests? Do we get along? Do I enjoy this person's company? Do they have similar morals and ethics? These are things visually impaired guys are thinking about wen getting to know a woman. Pretty cool huh?


5. We remember the important details about you: Most visually impaired people are pretty darn good at memorizing. Keeping track of traveling routs, remembering the placement of the bar at our favorite local brewery or recognizing family, friends and of course our lover by the sound of their voice give us a lot of practice. There's good potential that your visually impaired lover won't forget your birthday, your favorite type of flowers or your favorite dinner. Even though we are guys, we strive to be masters at memorizing, and we'll memorize you too!


6. Love dogs, and wish you could take your furry friend with you wherever you go? Your pet dog may not be allowed into shops, restaurants, grocery stores, or on all forms of transportation, but your visually impaired lover's dog may be and that's almost as good. Some people who are visually impaired choose to travel with a guide dog instead of a white cane. You as a lover have the best of both worlds: you get to enjoy the company of a well trained dog without having to take care of he or she, and the dog gets to accompany you and your visually impaired lover wherever you go. Win-win I'd say.


7. There are shortcuts in lines and discounts on some products and services: Nobody likes lines and everybody likes a discount every now and again. Imagine, you and your visually impaired lover are waiting in line to ride an epic roller coaster and you hear the people in front of you say "we've been waiting here for an hour already." You, the amazing girlfriend with your magical sighted powers look ahead and see that the line twists and turns out of sight. You and your visually impaired lover settle in for a long wait. Then out of nowhere an amusement park employee comes up and says something like " sir with the white cane, there's a people with disabilities lane for this ride just over here. It's much shorter and we can get you on the ride in no time. Is this lovely lady here with you?" Your visually impaired lover takes the park employee up on their offer and confirms that yes, the beautiful lady standing next to him is indeed his partner. Boom! Both of you just skipped ahead of a whole lot of people, and they are all okay with it. You can also be the first one's on and off the airplane, pay for nosebleed seats for your favorite band/sports team and be re-located to the "disability section," which is usually much, much closer than those 300 level nosebleed cheap seats, or get an up close and personal tour of artifacts in a museum. You didn't know a visually impaired person's white cane or guide dog was a universal discount pass to all kinds of products and services did you?


8. we will grocery shop with you: If you are a woman who enjoys spending a Saturday afternoon leisurely picking out your groceries for the week with your lover you are in luck! Most visually impaired people must get assistance with grocery shopping from the store's customer service staff, some of whom are not cute, not friendly and most certainly aren't our type. Simply put, we are used to shopping with others and are okay with it; it's how we get our food. Your visually impaired lover may even be able to recommend a new product to try.


9. If you are a woman who is sighted, there will be no arguing over who drives while traveling together: Many visually impaired people have driven primarily for the humor and the novelty of trying out this very visual task. Don't worry though, the DMV will not issue licenses to a visually impaired person. So guess what? You are free to do the driving all you want! So what if you don't like driving, are tired of driving around, or are a woman who is visually impaired? No problem, your visually impaired lover will be happy to escort you around the metro area using the public transportation system. You will be able to kick back and enjoy the relatively inefficient bus/train transportation along with a group of your favorite strangers.


If you are single, and looking for that perfect relationship, think outside the box, and consider dating a guy who is visually impaired, you just might find your true lover!