The Hitchhiker's Guide
to the University of New Mexico

1.
The only map you will ever need to this campus, is in the palm of your right hand. Lay it across your chest and you can feel your way to the heart of campus. Raise it as often as possible and opportunity will find you. Extend it frequently, with an accompanying smile, and you will never be lonely or lost again. And if you read it, you just might find fortune in your future.

2.
Knowing the difference between a giraffe, a Lobo and a rock concert just might save your life at the Pit. Sometimes, tailgating is sleight of hand. Signs of love, not to be confused with a gang. This is a "pact."

3.
Don't feed the ducks at the duck pond, and when you do...make sure to wipe your feet before coming back into the dorms.

4.
Go to all office hours when offered. The real world is built on relationships, not GPA nor class rank. Besides, your professor knows someone who might like to hire you and just doesn't know it yet. Because recommendation letters are infinitely more interesting when your professor knows more about you than "resume attached." Because it is highly probable that many of you will one day teach...and how would you feel being jilted at the office?

5.
At least once a week, introduce yourself to someone it looks like you have absolutely nothing in common with. Statistics suggests you'll never have more proximity to and density of diverse identities and ideas. It's nothing like home, and that's a good thing.

6.
Whenever a classmate invites you home for the holidays or a vacation say "yes." These offers are practically non-existent outside the collegiate environment. You are likely to gain 5 lbs. in the process, but like the Freshman 10 you'll lose it in no time thanks to your High Stress Diet...but the memories, the memories will last a lifetime. Even if the friendship don't.

7.
There is an entire universe beyond the confines of the University. An open book mesa practically begging you to come journal your journey by the foot. A whole curriculum of culture that don't cost a thing except curiosity. A place that will shape you if you let it. A City you can fall in love with, that will actually love you back.

8.
Play in the rain, but not the arroyo. Everybody does it. New Mexicans can go from pressed up against the window, to pressing open the door in 60 seconds flat. Where we go from wondering if that pitter-pat on the roof is? … to canceling the rest of class in even less...because any evidence of this milagro will evaporate within a half an hour...and besides, that's where the rainbows are.

9.
If you stay long enough, you are never ever going to want to leave here...and it is still clinically unclear whether that is a blessing or a curse, madness or magic...but whatever it is...it is a fact. That is to mean, this is not a diss...but a disclaimer.

10.
On a cloudless day, if you stare at the sky long enough...you can see heaven in the mirror. Don't forget to look up at night too. And make sure to visit the Bosque and the Crest...at least once, before you leave.