I was never really the kind of student who hated school.

As a matter of fact, I was the student who never wanted to miss school-- even if it was for a family vacation. What I learned is, in college everyone is the kind of student who hates school, or at least the learning and testing aspects of it.

By this point, having gone through almost two years of college, I have taken plenty of classes. When I look back at all of them, one in particular class stands out the most to me. This class I was able to relate to, come out of my comfort zone, enjoy learning, and the bubble that I grew up living in was popped.

The class changed me as a student.

I no longer dreaded going to class, but instead, I wanted to go and never wanted it to end. I enjoyed being there and it was my favorite part of the day.

The way we learned was different than I had ever experienced before and that I owe a thank you to my professor for. She created an atmosphere in her classroom that was open and accepting; making students feel appreciated and well noticed. This too was different for me because I never really had a college Professor care enough to get to know every student in the class personally and not just as “red shirt over there.” In the class, my Professor truly cared about everyone and their stories. One of my favorite parts of this class was how open conversation could be. If something came up that was off-topic, but still relevant to any of our lives, the conversation would not be shut down; rather it would have just begun and could go on forever. Having the classroom made as an open environment was important to me because generally, I am very shy-- to the point where I would not even raise my hand to answer a question, even if it was something I was extremely passionate about. In this class it was different. I had no problem being the first or even only person to raise my hand because I knew what I said would never be shut down.

Learning did not seem like it was a forced habit anymore. I never once felt like I was being forced to learn. I found myself enjoying class and once that started to happened time flew by. Usually, for me, class consisted of checking the time every five minutes hoping that miraculously it would be time to leave. That was not the case anymore. I was able to sit through an entire class not checking the time once and to my great surprise by doing that, time seemed to go faster. Overall, I truly just enjoyed being in that classroom.

To me, what was most important was that the bubble I grew up living in was popped. I realized there was an entire world outside of where I live and lives that were so drastically different than what I knew. This was something that was important for me to learn to grow as a person.

Now, I am not so narrow minded. I am not living in my own little world. I do not think the same way I used to.