“College Has Taught Me I Am Really Not Good At Anything…”

I know, it's a big statement. At this point in the semester, we are all probably feeling this way, if not about every class, at least some classes. This semester to date has been my worst. Currently, I am enrolled in 18 credit hours, which isn’t too terrible until you put the rest on top. I work two different jobs that don't stop when I log off my computer, I am the president of one club, the new member educator in my sorority, and this is the first time away from my parents living on my own with not just one, but four other roommates (now that's a blog story in itself, stay tuned for that story some day soon). What's this long laundry list trying to prove? It's proving to me that this semester at WIU has taught me I am really not good at anything…

If you were to look at my Midterm grades, you would say to yourself that I'm not that bad of a student. Well, grade wise, maybe not. I cannot tell you how many times, especially this semester, that I do what it takes to get the grade. Not one of my classes comes easily to me at all. Even a class that I have a huge passion for, I simply stink at. My last few lines are the problem. "I do what it takes to get the grade." With that being said, the following list is of things that I stink at, but I think we could all work on together to maybe get better at it.

1. Grades

I will do anything, I mean anything to get the grade that everyone wants to see and will help my GPA. I cannot tell you the last time that I actually stepped back and thought, "what does this formula actually mean that the accounting teacher keeps reverting back to and telling me I need to memorize it." I just play robot and do the homework to get it done to move on to the next assignment. What is being a robot teaching me? Nothing. Because of WIU, I have realized that I have to work even harder to really grasp what the class is trying to teach me. If I don't start to really think about what I'm learning, I am going to leave WIU after four years and not be able to utilize any of the classes I took.

2. Time Management

Before this semester, I would say that I was very good at time management. I never turned in an assignment late. Most people don't go more than 15 minutes before getting a response back from me on an email/text/Facebook message. This semester has changed that though. I tell people fairly often that I have to plan my days minute by minute and often times have to schedule when I can actually go to the bathroom. Even though time management has not come easily this year, it will one day. College doesn't make life very easy and one day we might discover that we wish we could have come back to these crazy days when every five minutes we had something to do!

3. Relationships

I have always really enjoyed being around people, but I think the main reason was because I had the chance to get away from everyone when I wanted. Before, I would come to school and then got to go home to my family. Now I go home to four different people that were all raised in so many different ways that just don't usually work with my idea of how things should get done. WIU has taught me that some relationships I've made will last me a life time and some were just not meant to be. Once we get into the real world, we will not be able to pick each person that we work with each day, but college has taught me how to work with those that drive you crazy.

Overall, WIU has really taught me that even though I might have figured out what I would like to do for the rest of my life, I really am not the

best at anything. With that statement being said, WIU and college has actually taught me from here on out- that I will have to bust my butt till the day I die to ensure that what I think I’m good at, I will actually one day turn out to be good at it.