On the college student awesomeness spectrum, I landed somewhere shy of stellar. I chose actuarial science from an alphabetical list of majors and enrolled in the classes the student adviser suggested at registration. I put as much effort into my classes as I did into choosing them and by the end of my freshman year, my GPA left me one legal blood alcohol content limit away from getting kicked out of the business school. So, I changed my major to marketing. I still didn’t apply myself, but at least I could pass the tests. If you’re thinking I’m a spoiled millennial who wasn’t ready for college, you’re right, but remaining a student was the only way to continue receiving my dad’s death benefits from the state. I without a doubt wasn’t capable of adulting if I couldn’t even student.
Marketing it was. Turns out, marketing is ironically relevant to just about every possible career path one can venture down and I really should have paid more attention. Shoot! I do remember one thing though: the one thing my Marketing 101 professor told his students to remember from his class if we remembered just one thing. Being the overachiever that I am, I made it my takeaway from all my college “studies.” The 4 P’s of marketing: product, price, place, promotion. If you understand the 4 P’s, you understand marketing… more or less.
Several years later, as I stumbled down one of my daily soul-searching tangents, I realized I’d run into the P’s of life. Most of the topics I thought and journaled about started with the letter P. Passion, people, perspective, etc. Coincidence? Maybe. But maybe, if I can understand life’s P’s, I will be on the path to understanding life, or at least able to make peace with it.
I wrote some of the important P’s into a pineapple. Which P’s mean the most to you?
My dear sweet Anna–I just love you!! I loved your blog–is it a blog?–I don’t know if I’m “hip” to the correct lingo. Anywho, I love your honesty. That gave me the guts to admit that I fell somewhat short of “stellar” my freshman year of college. How could I, as your former teacher, ever admit that? But now you have given me courage to admit to my foibles (isn’t that a word?). As an only lonely child, when I got to college there were so many dorm rooms and so many people to talk to, and so little time. I had to visit them all. My dorm director called me in after the first quarter when deficiency slips came out. After receiving some with my name on them, her question to me was “Are you majoring in ukulele this quarter?” I so wanted to say, “No, but I can play a mean Kumbaya!” I wisely chose not to give that answer, but presented a proper sheepish look. So my “P’s” in 1962 were people, party, & play! After receiving (i before e, except after c–got it) an encouraging, heartwarming letter from my dad (which I wish I had kept) my “P’s” became: priorities, perserverence(sp?–I’m too lazy to look it up), and passion. Mostly passion–a passion for children, a passion for teaching. If I hadn’t shaped up and followed my passion, I wouldn’t have met you. 🙂
Also, I LOVE the pineapple!!!!!