How Do You Work This Life Thing?
Advice for the Newly Independent on Roommates, Jobs, Sex, and Everything That Counts
When you’re eighteen and finally getting out of your parents’ house, is etiquette on your mind? Probably not. But when you have to talk to your college professor or apply for a job, do you know what to say? How to dress? How about bringing up the full sink of dirty dishes without starting an argument with your roommate? And the loud noises she made last night with that guy she brought home? How do you go there?
How Do You Work This Life Thing?, a how-to-deal guide for the newly independent, was inspired by Lizzie’s own college experiences: roommates, co-workers, significant others, and all things social became material for this book. Lizzie uses stories from her friends and retells mishaps from her own life to illustrate how necessary etiquette really is to the 18-25 crowd—whether they know it or not.
There are no stuffy rules here or antiquated ideas. Writing in a conversational voice and loading the book with “Instant Tips” and even last-minute recipes, Lizzie uses her Three C’s—Communication, Compromise, and Commitment—to show the newly independent that etiquette is about building relationships with people and not necessarily which fork you use.
Hot topics in How Do You Work This Life Thing? include:
- How to avoid killing your roommate
- The etiquette of couch crashing
- Significant others, one-night stands, and things that go bump in the night
- Entertaining—From wine tasting to beer pong
- Solving the dirty dish dilemma
- Five top potential war zones at home
- Other people’s stuff (borrowing)
- Socializing—From etiquette with friends to meeting new people
- Landing the perfect job
- Tactics for graceful interaction with sales people, professors, landlords, co-workers and neighbors
“Even in today’s casual, comfortable world there is still a time-tested tool we can use to guide us: etiquette,” says Lizzie. “This book shows the real issues the newly independent face at home, out in the world and at school and work.” Whether a newly independent’s first venture into the “real world” includes college, the military, or the workplace, How Do You Work This Life Thing? is an essential tool for making it through one of life’s most thrilling and confusing stages.
