This post is inspired by The Atlantic's "Bi-Austen-tennial" week commemorating the 200th anniversary of Jane Austen's death. Austen's advice and observations about growing up, falling in love and all the painful and horrible things that come with those processes will never not be relevant. Societal norms and sizes of skirts change, but human nature never does (shocking, I know).
1. On the guy who waved at you on the way to class who you can't stop thinking about
"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”-- Pride and Prejudice.
(You're still a psycho, but at least you know it's not just you.)
2. On working in retail/food
"The more I see of the world, the more am I dissatisfied with it; and every day confirms my belief of the inconsistency of all human characters, and of the little dependence that can be placed on the appearance of merit or sense."-- Lizzie Bennet, Pride and Prejudice
(Self-explanatory).
3. On group projects
"There are people, who the more you do for them, the less they will do for themselves--" Emma
(We've all been unwittingly promoted to Group Leader™ and held everyone's hand because we happened to be the only one in the group who went to class or cared.)
4. On not settling for random jerks you meet on Tinder
"Only the deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So, I shall end an old maid, and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill--" Lizzie Bennett, Pride and Prejudice
(You get to a point in life where you know you're either going to have to tough it out and wait or settle for someone whose main hobbies are drinking and complaining. And the second is not who Lizzie Bennett would want you to be, nor is it what you deserve.)
5. When you have a ~feeling~ you have a quiz due at midnight
“Indeed, I am very sorry to be right in this instance. I would much rather have been merry than wise--" Emma
(Nothing like realizing that feeling was right at 11:40 p.m.)
6. When you're ignoring someone's messages and then you go out and see them
"Every young lady has at some time or other known the same agitation. All have been, or at least all have believed themselves to be, in danger from the pursuit of someone whom they wished to avoid--" Northanger Abbey
(Self-explanatory, classic dilemma.)
7. When you skip a morning class but then you see your professor on your way to lunch
See above.
8. On trying to get to Chick-fil-A before it closes
"I am half-agony, half-hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever--" Persuasion
9. When you're about to graduate, but still don't know what you're doing
"I hope my mother is now convinced that I have no more talents than inclination for a public life!" -- Sense and Sensibility
(You may still feel bad about your lack of accomplishments, but again, at least you know it's not just you. If Jane Austen can teach us anything, it's that millennials are not the first generation who didn't have the whole #adulting thing figured out.)
