This past week I thought a lot on a topic that every student ought to more fully grasp: school is about learning.
That may sound like a stupid thing for me to urge you to think about since it seems so obvious, but in reality, the majority of students do not properly live by this thought.
Have Your Voice Heard: Become an Odyssey Creator
Growing up, I was a bright child. I enjoyed reading and writing and taking in as much knowledge as I possibly could. I still enjoy doing these things, but they have been overshadowed by the amount of stress I am under as a college student.
My classes have become less about learning and more about memorizing facts in order to get a good grade on a test. My grade point average has become more important to than how much I am able to apply what I learn in class in my everyday life. I choose my classes based on requirements and credits rather than on what I feel interested in learning about.
This semester, I found myself doing some of my projects and papers "halfway"; I put in enough effort to get a good grade, but not a good enough effort to allow the capacity of my knowledge to be expanded. Reading a chapter became skimming a chapter. Writing a paper became coming up with a first draft and turning it in because that was good enough for me.
I didn't realize what I was doing until the very end of the semester as I conducted my final project for my poetry class. It was an in-depth paper about the development of the thoughts of a poet I enjoy reading, and as I researched further on the topic, I found myself becoming more and more interested. I wanted to read more and I wanted to know more. I had not felt this feeling of genuine curiosity and desire to know in so long, and it refreshed me.
That moment reminded me that school isn't supposed to be so stressful. It's not supposed to be about GPA, memorizing random trivia, or passing a class. It is supposed to be about expanding your intellectual horizons. It is supposed to be about learning more every day in order to allow growth in yourself.
As a full-time student, you have opportunities that you will never have again. Your life is currently all about finding out who you are, creating your future, building new relationships, and feeding your mind.
My goal next semester is to keep that as my focus as I do my work. I want to actually learn in my classes, rather than pass the test and forget everything that was on it. I want to take advantage of the resources and opportunities I have, rather than ignore the countless number of books I can read for free or never take the time to talk to my professors and learn from them. I invite you to join me in this goal to make the best of our academic lives.