men! lor mind and body, and you'll need to make a conscientious effort beyond gradu ation to maintain the same sharp intuitive skills and leisure time patterns you've developed on campus Your "maintenance education'-to com a phrase-will keep you physically and mentally tit Let s take a look at some of the things you can do after you graduate, to continue what you started four years ago Take Extension Courses In nearly every community you'll hnd atter-hours classes ottered in every discipline imagina ble, from wine tasting to Greek tragedy to, well, origami Classes run anywhere trom one to a dozen sessions at tees ranging trom zilch-zippo-nada to about $100 These adult extension courses are a great place to learn a thing or two about ott-the-beaten path subjects, and you'd have to look long and hard to hnd a better place to meet peo ple ot like age and interest It you're in a small town, your local library should otter a similar service Work Out Its not the easiest thing in the world to stay in shape ott campus, there's no 24-hour gym at your disposal, no assortment ot similarly-inclined recrea f/ona//sfs looking to get together a game ot sottball or touch football Vou'll have to I i _ work hard to work out Join a gym or a health club and enroll in one of their regularly scheduled classes It's a great way to enforce the habit of staying in shape Remember: a sound body is the best place to store your sound mind Read That's right, read A lot It's important to continue the good habits you Ve developed in school as part of your maintenance edu cation Read as much as you can. whenever you can-books, magazines, newspapers, anything and everything that holds your inter est outside your field It's a good idea to subscribe to a couple of publications to help you stay on top of developments in several areas, and to read your local newspaper and a ma/or national newspaper on a daily basis No one will make you do this—there are no "pop " current events quizzes in the nine to tive world-but you'll be a better person if you develop the habit early on, and stick with it Amuse Yourself Gef out of the house, have some tun Go to movies, plays, muse ums. concerts It's easy—isn’t it?—to walk down to the campus gallery or theater or conservatory and take in some culture It's less easy once you graduate, but a small effort will pay great dividends throughout your adult life And besides, you'll need to have something to talk about at cocktail parlies. Get Involved In anything that sparks your interest. In community issues, in local politics, in neighborhood social events Go ahead, coach that little league team, or that girl’s soccer squad you've always dreamed about leading to the county championships You’re going to have to make a concerted effort to pursue community-oriented activi ties once you re out of school, but your com munity and you yourself, can stand the effort In all things, you'll need to enforce a discipline that might have been lacking dur ing your college years The work you'll do, as important as it will be to you and your sense of self-worth, is not enough to sustain a well-rounded individual You, or most of you anyway have had a well-rounded education, and you'll have to make your own effort to maintain and apply that education toward a well rounded adulthood CASE IN POINT Helene Galdor, 25, was always going to be a lawyer She studied long and hard for her LSAT exams, scored high, and earned admission into several of the country's top law schools Sounds like a dream come true, right? Well, not exactly "I hated it," Galdor recalls “I'm sitting there, in one of my classes that first week, and I’m thinking, ‘What am I doing here?"' By the end of that first semester, Galdor still couldn't figure out what she was doing chasing a law degree, and applied for a leave of absence from the program. "It's funny," she now says, "but all your life you 're groomed to do one thing and one thing only My father was a lawyer, and his father was a lawyer, and there never was any question that I wouldn't be a lawyer, too It was all one big going through the motions of a career, until I realized, hey this isn't forme” The leave of absence soon merged into a withdrawal as Galdor convinced herself, and then her family that the legal profession could make it iust fine without her But even that didn’t solve her career problems; it just created new ones "That was one of the hardest things I ever had to do," she says "All of my undergraduate courses were po litical science, history, some English, but nothing that prepared me for any other type of work It was as though I was starting all over aaam. from scratch " Galdor did remember an introductory psychology course she took during her Freshman year, and thought maybe a career m some area of mental health would be right for her While she worked at assorted day jobs <waitress, temporary secretary sales clerk), Galdor enrolled in night courses at a local university to acquire the undergradu ate credits necessary to pursue a clinical psychology doctoral degree After a year of part-time work and classes, Galdor went back to school full time for concentrated work in biology psy chology and statistics courses, and she worked part-time in a laboratory setting under the tutelage of one of her psychology professors "I was lucky," she says, "in that I didn't have to worry too much about money. My parents were pretty good about helping me make this transition as quickly as possi ble. If I had to do this about-face totally on my own, it would have taken a lot longer." Last summer, after a year-and-a-half professional turnaround, Galdor was ac cepted into a clinical psychology Ph D pro gram. and she is now completing her first year of study Had she remained in law school, she’d now be looking toward gradua tion, a first job, and a bar exam she never really wanted to take Instead, she's got another "five, six, or seven years " before she earns her degree "I run into people I went to school with, or people I grew up with, and they can't believe what I'm doing," she says. "I guess people categorize other people the same