#thehatchet

Have any of you read the book The Hatchet?

If you have or if you fell asleep in you 5th grade class, I’ll give you a quick Sparknotes version of the book. Brian, a 13-year-old boy gets into a plane crash and has to survive on a deserted island all by himself. With just a hatchet, rifle, and an emergency transmitter to his name, he is forced to survive on his own, overcoming struggles that we take advantage of on a daily basis (i.e. starting a fire from scratch, building shelter for himself, etc.). 

Luckily, we aren’t on an island all by ourselves, we are here at UAlbany! And I am going to share with you some of the personal items in my survival kit to complete this semester on a high note. 

1. Maintain a positive attitude: Remember there is no amount of work that is too much to overcome

 2. Keep an open dialogue with your professor: Hopefully you have a relationship built already, but don’t stress if you don’t. They are there to help! Stroll into office hours and ask for help with your studies and see if there is some extra credit that will help that report card of yours. 

3. Know your schedule: Map out a plan of what your week will look like and allocate the proper amount of time for every part of your schedule down to the last minute (including those trips to the vending machine).

4. Keep going to class: Skipping that 8:45 economics lesson seems like a really good idea when you are rubbing the crust out of your eyes in the morning, but keep grinding and you will be rewarded with review notes and hopefully some hints on the exam ☺ 

I will leave you with two quotes that you should carry with you during your studies that can be found in The Hatchet. 

“The most important rule of survival, which was that feeling sorry for yourself didn’t work.”

“That's all it took to solve problems - just sense.”