What's Been On Mind (Freeverse) (A Student's Perspective)

Polonius. Yet here, Laertes? Aboard, aboard, for shame! 

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, 

And you are stay'd for. There- my blessing with thee! 

And these few precepts in thy memory 

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue, 545

Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. 

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar: 

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, 

Grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel; 

But do not dull thy palm with entertainment 550

Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade. Beware 

Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, 

Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee. 

Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice; 

Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. 555

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 

But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy; 

For the apparel oft proclaims the man, 

And they in France of the best rank and station 

Are most select and generous, chief in that. 560

Neither a borrower nor a lender be; 

For loan oft loses both itself and friend, 

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry. 

This above all- to thine own self be true, 

And it must follow, as the night the day, 565

Thou canst not then be false to any man. 

Farewell. My blessing season this in thee!

Hamlet, I,iii

The best advice an old man, a king, had for a college student, his son, leaving home for an education. But the advice fits so many situations such as this. You're yung, and this, too, shall pass and sewrve as a reminder that in weakness we are challenged to gain strength. In sorrow, seek gladness in your own heart.