College Is Hard
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Student Life

College Is Hard

You're going to fail a few times, but it's OK.

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College Is Hard

My entire academic career I've been a fairly good student. School was something that was easy for me and it never took much effort for me to do well. I tested as gifted and talented in elementary school and took honors and AP courses every year I could. I graduated high school in the top 10 percent of my class with high honors.

At my college orientation, the dean of my school told a room full of bright-eyed, eager, freshmen, "the average GPA of a college student is one point lower than what they got in high school. So if you got 4.0's in high school, expect 3.0's, and so on." The room erupted in chatter. Everyone was freaking out and no one wanted to believe it.

First semester came and it went. It threw a few new challenges at me but nothing I couldn't handle. I got A's and B's in high school, so I got A's and B's in college. No big deal.

But then second semester came.

I was taking 17 units, five of which came from a single class. I pulled my fair share of all nighters, studied every day for weeks, went to tutoring sessions and got help from my professors when I could. I exhausted nearly every single one of my options and still nothing was helping me. The constant failure made discouraged me and eventually I just completely gave up in some of my classes. At the end of the semester, I came very short of my beginning of the year goal and ended with a 2.27.

Now, GPA and weight are similar in the way that it's fairly impolite to ask someone what it is, so you don't really talk about it. I'm not proud of that GPA what so ever, but thats what I got. In retrospect I could've been better and been more proactive about certain things but what's done is done and there is nothing I can do about it.

College is hard, and it's supposed to be. When you're expected to become an expert on a subject in 16 weeks, things are going to be challenging at time. When you factor in a social life, jobs, volunteer experiences, and a million other things you going to feel the strain and things are going to be trying at times. You're going to get discouraged, you're going to give up, and you're going to strongly consider dropping out. But when the going gets tough just remember that there are about 30,000 other people who are in the same situation you're in. Although I'm technically a sophomore and have only been in college all of two seconds, this isn't some profound awakening experience but its just one of those facts of life that most people will realize sooner or later.

So you failed a class, alright retake it. So you failed a test, study smarter next time. So you're not doing too well overall, take a step back and evaluate where the imbalance is coming from. Not doing so well academically isn't the worst thing in the world and although you feel like you're going to die, I promise you won't.

College (and probably adulthood, I'll get back to you on that) is best defined as a long series of major loses, with minor wins far and few in between. The world will chew you up and spit you back out, and so as cliche as it all sounds, the only thing you can do is get back steady on your feet and try again.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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