1. Learn to think. You might have the wrong answer now, but high-level critical thinking will get you to the right answer in the end.
2. Learn to learn. It's not just automatic--among other things, it requires intellectual curiosity, tolerance for risk-taking, and perseverance.
3. What you know, or know how to do, is not as important as who you are. Approach your education with that guiding principle in mind.
4. Your brain, like every other muscle in your body, will grow stronger, faster, and better with regular exercise--the more strenuous the effort, the greater the result. In other words, smart is what you make it.
5. The person ultimately responsible for you is you.
6. Failing at a difficult task means you're an ambitious, confident risk-taker who's willing to accept a challenge on your way to the top. Not an apathetic, incompetent loser who's willing to do nothing on your way to the bottom.
7. The people surrounding you here will no doubt have and express their own opinions about who you are. These judgements say more about the other people than they do about you. You are not required to accept these opinions or adopt them as your own. You will not be surrounded by these people forever.
8. Not everything you have to learn or do will be fun. Some things will be difficult, frustrating, boring, or have no immediately obvious benefit. This does not necessarily mean they won't prove valuable to you in the future.
9. Not everything you have to learn or do will have value on its own, either now or in the future, but it may be the cost of reaching some other worthwhile goal. Sometimes, if you want to ride the bus, you have to buy a ticket. Even if the ticket just seems like a worthless piece of paper.
10. You can do it. We're behind you all the way.
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