Skin: lackluster. Head: throbbing. Yep, it looks like classic case of midterm week hangover. Seemingly endless nights of camping out in a retro library cubical etched with encouraging memorandum from test’s gone past and finally being taken off your caffeine IV has taken a physical and mental toll on you. 

But today, it’s all over, and the only thing you want to do is take a nap until you have enough energy to do something that will actually get you hung over. You log on to check your grades with the same enthusiasm as opening a singing birthday card from Hallmark. Just replace the snappy melody of the birthday chorus with horrific, dark, and eerie strings... it seems you have failed them all. 

You question everything. You feel played. You conclude that college isn't for you. But that is where you are wrong.

Believe it or not, as a college student, you are a minority! There are over 7 billion people in the world and only 17.7 million have had the privilege to attend a undergraduate, degree-granting, postsecondary institution, according to a recent study. Isn't that crazy that you are in that 17.7 million? Only 40% of Americans have a college degree and you are devoting yourself full-time to become part of that privileged minority. What a life we are living, am I right? Early morning classes, eating redundant meals in dining halls, and considering shower shoes as a wardrobe staple seems worthwhile when you think that only 6.7% of the world has a college degree, a number found in a 2010 joint study by Harvard and the Asian Development Bank. 

To humble you a little more, according to a study conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, there are 250 million primary aged children who don't know how to read or write. There are another 200 million aged 15 to 24 who have not even completed primary education. We are students who have the privilege to devote ourselves full-time to studying and researching subjects that inspire us and excite us because we have had the benefit of having education at our fingertips. Just marvel at that for a second...

Recent budget proposals issued by the government have had students fearful for the future of our perspective institutions. These proposals have forced many of us to question the importance our state government is placing on higher education… but think of how lucky we are to be concerned citizens from the seat of a classroom. So that huge paper you have due next week? Write it. That awful professor whose class you couldn't get out of? Sit through it.  Because most of the world will not have the privilege of experiencing something as exciting, challenging, and worthwhile as we are.