Before You Fly The Nest: Advice for kids heading to college
August 5, 2022·5 comments·In Brief
Brent Donnelly is a senior risk-taker and FX market maker, and has been trading foreign exchange since 1995. His latest book, Alpha Trader, was published last summer to great acclaim (by me, among others!) and can be found at your favorite bookseller. I think it’s an outstanding read, and not just for professional traders.
You can contact Brent at his new gig at bdonnelly@spectramarkets.com and on Twitter at @donnelly_brent. Also, check out his substacks at https://50in50.substack.com/ and https://mtcbd.substack.com/.
As with all of our guest contributors, Brent’s post may not represent the views of Epsilon Theory or Second Foundation Partners, and should not be construed as advice to purchase or sell any security.
My son, and a number of my friends’ kids, are heading off to college in the next few weeks. One of these soon-to-be freshmen asked me if I had any advice for her before she heads off, and my first thought was: “Wow, that is a hard question!” My second thought was: “If you saw how I conducted myself in college, you would not be asking me this!” My third thought was that any advice I might offer could be too specifically tied to my own personal lived experience.
So, I asked a bunch of people who I consider wise to offer me some wisdom. Today’s note is my best effort to write a useful summary of the responses, comingled with my own advice.
Most of the suggestions fall into a few discrete categories, so I’m going to structure things that way, with some extra credit material at the end. I am using “college” and “university” interchangeably in this essay so that Americans, Canadians, Aussies, Brits, and everyone else around the world can enjoy it equally, regardless of what brand of English they prefer.
There is no correct way to do college, and this note is not meant to tell you what to do. Follow the advice here that resonates with you and discard the rest!
Explore, get outside your comfort zone, and experiment
“I don’t know where I’m going, but I know exactly how to get there.” - Boyd Varty
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