Under Your Skin: How to Survive College

By Brandon Lopez and Ryan Cerny

It's a fictional narrative structured as 10 counseling sessions, spanning the duration of a school year at UCLA. The only characters are the mentor and the mentee. After enduring a horrible first year, the mentee (who faces crippling social anxiety) is eager to adapt to his surroundings and receives the help of another student. We addressed the challenges of adapting to a University, including imposter syndrome, career worries, sleep/stress management, social support, and ultimately how to find happiness in an unfamiliar place. As the mentee is guided through his University experience and unlocks his full potential, he becomes the exact opposite of the mentor. Ultimately, we wanted to pose a question in the realm of intent vs impact: Does intent matter? Essentially a commentary on interpersonal relationships, it explores the relational challenges that may arise between individuals who come from different backgrounds. While at its surface it explores the possible external struggles of a University student, at its core it's a book about friendship, personal identity and responsibility and the inevitable challenges that come with their fusion. We wanted to highlight the role that emotion plays in intercommunication by exploring the nature of the relationship of between the two characters and their struggles to communicate, created by the flaws that make them human.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1659270545
• ISBN13: 9781659270549
• Release Date: April 2020
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"