Austin360 blogs > Out & About > Archives > 2011 > May > 07 > Entry
The Free Advice Club: Brett Chauviere and Robert Hicks
“You guys giving away free advice?”
“And Popsicles.”
“What should I do with my life?”
“Well, what are your interests?”
“Wide and varied.”
“I’d probably say: Take all these interests and find out what appeals to you most.”
“And just go for it?”
“Just go for it.”
Bearded and beaming Dan Krumland (junior geography major) stopped by the oak-shaded table, positioned askew at the southeast corner of the West Mall on the University of Texas campus.
Their special expertise? None.
“They are good at making stuff up,” says Sarah Satinsky (senior, psychology and Plan II). “Sometimes it sounds like psychology. But it’s based on no background knowledge. I’ll admit they are witty.”
Hicks, unnaturally calm in shorts, T-shirt and flipflops, and housemate Chauviere, compact and slightly more wound up in jeans, have been friends since kindergarten. Last fall, they registered the Free Advice Club with the UT Student Union as an official organization, paying the $5 fee and making membership free.
“We were all sitting together on the couch one day, and we ran out of things to talk about,” Hicks recalls. “That never happens. So we thought, instead of giving each other advice, let’s set up an organization and give advice on campus.”
In the final days of spring classes, a steady stream of students strode past the would-be advisors. One in maybe 20 accepted their offer of a Popsicle and/or recommendations. Sara Nejad (senior, finance) felt a bit melancholy.
“I just finished my last day of classes. I feel sad. I don’t want to feel sad.”
“Why are you sad?”
“It’s the end of the best years of my life.”
“So far. Is it the uncertainty of the future that you are worried about?”
“No, just the ending.”
These informal life coaches grew up in Baytown.
“We had a falling out in second grade when we went to different elementary schools,” jokes Chauviere, who has already landed a job as account manager at Sparefoot.com, which provides customers rate quotes gleaned from self-storage businesses. “We made up when we went to the same junior high.”
At Robert E. Lee High School, the duo bonded over video games, National Honor Society and water recreation.
“Also self-deprecating humor and overall nerdiness,” Chauviere says.
They lived separately during their first two years at UT.
“It was kind of like our second falling out,” Chauviere says, applying the driest coat of humor to his memories. “It was like the bridge to a song. Now we are back together to finish out the song.”
At the Free Advice stand, some of the questions, like those of Michael Daehne (junior, business finance), are built for back-talk.
“I’m giving a Cinco De Mayo party and I’m going to the store. What should I pick up?”
“Tequila.”
“What about the non-tequila lovers?”
“Everyone is a tequila lover. But get some Coronas and Dos Equis anyway.”
Believe it not, the question the West Mall sages get the most often is the one shared by Krumland: “What should I do with my life?”
“It’s so broad and open,” Hicks says. “It’s the hardest to answer.”
Early in the current Libyan crisis, one student wanted to know if he should support those rebels trying to oust Gadhafi.
“We said: ‘Listen to the people,’ ” Hicks says. “ ’Not your own ego.’ ”
Chauviere remembers a young man who asked how to persuade his girlfriend to share another girlfriend with him. Rather than leap to judgment, Chauviere tried to puzzle out the solution.
“The key with that is you’ve got to communicate,” he told the inquisitor. “Involve her from the beginning. Don’t spring it on her. It’s kind of a big step. It’s hard enough to please one person. But if one person is trying to please two other people, who are trying to please two other people, you need to be on the same page.”
At least their advice is more empathetic and lucid than was Lucy’s in the famous “Peanuts” cartoon series. Her lemonade-yellow stand read “Psychiatric help: 5 cents. The doctor is ‘in.’ ” Lucy, often grumpy, would say things like: “People come to me and ask me how to live … I tell them that to live is to live! Living is what makes living!”
Although they took Introduction to Psychology, Chauviere and Hicks never claim any professional proficiency.
Hicks says: “We both just like to think a lot and talk a lot.”
Chauviere says the experience has helped them overcome shyness.
“It reinforces that you can’t take rejection personally,” he says. “Here we are accosting people, and we hear a lot of ‘no’s.’ We’ve learned to treat everything as a learning experience and just have fun with it.”
Their time on the mall, Tuesdays and Thursdays in the afternoon, has kept the longtime friends close. But since Chauviere graduates this month, Hicks will keep the club going with other friends and housemates.
“It’s Free Advice time, but because we are so busy, it’s also been Brett and Rob time,” Chauviere says with a hint of wistfulness about the twice-weekly sessions. “We hash out our own problems in between hashing out other people’s problems.”
Their best advice at the end of the semester?
“Go to a happy hour and sit outside.”
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Comments
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By Vincent A.
May 11, 2011 11:06 AM | Link to this
I'm blown away that these guys actually got a blog page in Austin360. Total buffoons.
By Carla J.
May 8, 2011 8:17 AM | Link to this
This is great. This is just one of many examples of man's need to connect, and not by phone or computer. Reach out!