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Living at Brandeis can be a challenge. We are daily faced with the mounting pressures of class, social upheavals, and culture clash. Fortunately, Eliana Sinoff is here to answer your questions and maybe make life a little bit easier. Although a first-year, Eliana has experience dispensing advice from her career as an advice columnist for her high school newspaper.

Dear Eliana,

I’m a freshman and these first few weeks of college have been a whole new experience for me. One major problem I’ve been having is the whole showering thing. I don’t want people I barely know seeing me in the nude!

-Self-Conscious

Dear Self-Conscious,

Towels are amazing. They are these huge pieces of cloth that dry you off and cover you after you shower. Also, you could bring your clothes with you and leave them outside the shower to put on right when you get out. Another option is to shower in the middle of the night when most people are asleep and then you can pretty much let it all hang without a problem. I hope this has enlightened you.

-Eliana

Dear Eliana,

My roommate keeps leaving his dirty clothes all over the room and it’s driving me nuts. I don’t want to start any problems with him because we generally get along well. How can I approach this situation without seeming like a bossy jerk?

-I Hate Messes

Dear I Hate Messes,

As far as I can see, you have three choices in this situation. 1) You can not confront him and learn how to deal with the mess 2) Ask him in a nice way if he could try to be a little bit neater in the future 3) Pick up and put away his laundry for him. Any of the above could be effective ways of dealing with this problem. Good luck!

-Eliana

Dear Eliana,

Since the start of the year, I have met a lot of new people. The only problem is that I keep on forgetting everyone’s name. It’s really awkward to ask someone their name after they just told it to you a few minutes ago. I also want to friend everybody I meet on Facebook, which I can’t do without knowing their names. Do you have any tips for times when you are meeting new people and need to remember names?

-Too Many Names

Dear Too Many Names,

Many people, myself included, have the same problem as you. The upside about Brandeis is that there are lots of Jews so you can often just guess a typical Jewish name and the odds of it being correct are not too shabby. That, however, is probably not the best approach. One way to deal with this problem is to get to know a few people who pretty much know everyone, and just ask them when you get confused or can’t remember. Another idea is to connect the name of a person with a physical trait or an item of clothing they are wearing (although people do tend to change clothes fairly often).
If worst comes to worst, you can always just ask again and hope they understand that there are tons of people to meet and it’s hard to remember all of that information. Odds are, if you don’t know someone’s name, they probably forgot yours also.
I hope this helps!

-Eliana

Dear Readers,
If you can’t already tell, this is an advice column and I’m here to help you with any questions that you might have! If you want more exciting questions, send them in and I will do my best to answer them. Whether it’s relationships, social problems, or just life in general—send them here.
I can’t wait to start hearing about everyone’s problems (how often do you hear people say that? Oh yeah, never).
Send questions to Elianasadvice@brandeis.edu.
Thanks!
-Eliana