In the storm of feminism and strong willed personalities that make any person ready to take on the world, there is a wonder of how anyone is held back from the dreams previous students our age were once criticized of for being too far fetched. We have social media personalities, students that are determined to find cures for diseases most cannot pronounce the name of, and yet come Monday morning, travel mugs in hand there they are. All exactly where the are still meant to be. In class. Side by side with other students just as determined in whatever hold their lives have driven them to take.
Unless, one day, they decide that they won’t show up.
Their reasoning? That they do not like an opinion or thought process of the professor teaching the class.
It seems valid. In the wake of movies like God’s Not Dead, where a student challenges his professors beliefs with his own, having a differ of opinion is nothing new whether it be in or outside of the classroom. But now, at near mid-term, it still manages to startle me when I see a fellow student drop a class they need for their major, so will need to take again, simply because they heard something they did not like. Heard from friend even about a controversial opinion the professor mentioned one day when they were not there, but still decided to frown adversely at.
It is taking a stand, making a point, yes. The question though that continues to linger when we, as driven students and human beings of the world, want to prove so much, is when is proving something without saying a word, actually holding us back?
When is covering up others opinions by simply stopping to hear them all together, hurting us in the long haul?
Our values and open mindedness is what this generation is becoming known for in the most fantastic ways of LGBTQIA, freedom of speech, women’s rights, and more. But, if we continue to let others win, to let them have one less final exam to grade at the end of the term, because they have a steady trickle of one two three less students, I don’t see how these movements are going to be taken head on with a force larger than ever sooner rather than latter.
Thoughts are meant to be shared with the world, even if we do not always agree with them. Our goal for those, is to make sure that whoever you are, are also heard in the educated and tough skinned grace gained through life and love and experience that molded you into the person you are and continue to grow to be.
Proving yourself as a person one day, is more important than giving someone else the ammunition to say you have walked away when yes, you did without taking a chance to learn from it.
From standing up to being around people of all shapes, backgrounds, and possible comments you cringe at, you will not only walk the walk out of that class that you will never once have to look back on next year, but you will talk the talk of what you know is right. No one will stop you then when you shout to the world with more conviction than ever.
It deserves to be heard for as high as whatever soapbox from which you will preach.
