Awhile ago, a book was written titled, “All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” I never put too much stock into the book for two reasons. First, kindergarten skills aren’t much help on a calculus test. And second, I remember kindergarten as being fun and easy. Life since then has been anything but.

For instance, the time for students to register for classes is upon us. Though the university brags about the ease of the touch-tone system, it is often not easy. And I learned nothing about this in kindergarten. If I did, maybe I wouldn’t have so much trouble.

In deciding on which classes to take last week, I found out through the registering process that I am no longer going to have a minor. A core class I had to take next semester to stay on track is not even being offered. I’d say it was an act of God, but I don’t think I could handle the letters to the editor this time.

This now makes it the fifth time I have altered my area of study by means of adding, dropping, combining, etc. In four and a half semesters of college, I have changed my major five times.

Many students would have given up and now be spending the majority of their time hanging out in laundromats. I would probably be one of them, except through everything, there has been one person who has stuck by me. This person has seen me through the good times and the bad and has never let me lose sight of the goal. She is my adviser.

Coming to college, I had a preconceived notion of what an adviser should be. I don’t know where I learned it — probably in kindergarten — but this picture was clear in my head. Advisers would most likely be old with a list of degrees behind their names. They would be stuffy and serious and, basically, people to avoid.

And the advising appointment itself would be quick and to the point. The adviser would tell the student the classes he needed to take, when he needed to take them and what grades he needed to achieve. And then he or she would send the student on his merry way.

In my case, this notion was off 180 degrees.

My adviser has been more of a confidant to me. She is anything but stuffy and our appointments are never to the point — not because of her, but because of me. The appointments are usually long, because I never want to just talk about classes; I want to talk about life.

In four and a half semesters of college, I have changed my major five times, and I have changed the vision of who I want to be at least three times that number. These visions range anywhere from being a screenplay writer to working in a coffee shop. And every time it changes I need to tell my adviser about it. She’s third on the list behind God and my parents.

Luckily for my adviser, I tend to ramble, which you could probably tell from my columns. I can talk to someone for hours about a dream of mine, even though most won’t listen. But my adviser does! She must have other things to do, but never once can I remember her hurrying me along. And she always backs me up and encourages me, no matter how stupid the dream is.

Most importantly, she makes me feel better about myself. In four and a half semesters at college, I have changed my major five times, changed the vision of who I want to be 15 times and have been discouraged 1,015 times.

Whether it be an impossible class, a bad grade or a mean professor, a lot of factors can get a student down.

Every time this has happened to me, I have gone to my adviser. Somehow, she knows just what to say to make me feel better because I can never remember a time I walked out of her office not feeling good about my situation.

This, I believe, is the essential role of an adviser at an institution. Of course, students need help scheduling classes and staying on track to graduate, but this is secondary. Any professor can help with that.

The role of the adviser is special. Effective advisers stick by their students through their tenure here. They listen, they encourage, they gently push if needed, and through all, they make students feel better about themselves. Any adviser that does this I guarantee will win a place in the student’s heart forever.

So, as the time for class registration and that all-important advising appointment draws near, don’t be afraid to schedule an appointment. Your advisers are nothing more than your confidants and friends. And if they aren’t, they should be.

College can be a rough time. Your advisers are here to help you through it. I truly don’t know what I’d be doing today if it weren’t for the guidance and help of my adviser — the help of my friend.

And after all the adjustments, I think I have finally settled on an English major. Which means I’m majoring in a language most people had down after kindergarten. Oh well.

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Jackson Lashier is a junior in English from Marshalltown.