One of the main themes of my early columns was my hatred of everything vague and artificial (in other words, USE and Studium Generale). Over the last few years I've changed my tune; it became increasingly clear to me that USE lecturers are not lying about the importance of their courses. I always thought that we could do a couple of sums and, hey presto, everything would be solved, but in later courses, projects and now in my first grown-up job, this idea has proven way off beam.

So let me be clear: USE is less useless than the average student thinks and we would all do well to spend less time jerking off en cercle about how a USE course is ‘free ECTS’. Okay, so sometimes it can be a bit vague, we just have to put up with that.

This is going to sound incredibly pretentious, but another reason I've become more positive about USE and SG is that latterly as a student I can honestly say I have thoroughly enjoyed ‘broadening my horizons’, which is exactly what I was originally so sniffy about. I've been afforded the chance to meet a lot of international people; for a while I was a member of a bible reading class; I joined a sports association; and one year I was on a student team. I derived immense satisfaction from all this, even if it meant my diary was always packed.

My main take-away therefore is this: see studying as a opportunity to encounter and understand as many different people and perspectives as possible and - before we forget - to have a lot of fun. TU/e is a fantastic melting pot of people and ideas, just perfect for facilitating this endeavor. This is the sort of tired wisdom you'll hear said by the Dean BC or the teaching staff of any department during Intro, but that doesn't make it any less true. With hindsight, I should have opened up my mind much sooner. This won't be news to the average student but the campus is undoubtedly populated with a number of Leander clones who also need to realize this.

To close, my thanks to the editorial team at Cursor for their support and feedback. After six years of meticulous editing I still make a particular Dutch language error (dt verb endings) and use really odd sentence constructions, for which I apologize. Some columns (including this one) have arrived well past the deadline, and now and then a column has incited some strong emotions. Thank you to all my readers and those who have left comments.

Oh yes, and make sure you move away from home and into student rooms (fuck training it back and forth), vote (I don't care who for), read the newspaper (but beware, they soon pile up), discuss your problems with your friends (you can't do everything alone) and go abroad for your internship (or don't, you can broaden your horizons just as well in the Netherlands).