In my three years (and some change) at college I realized that there are many things I learned at college that I didn’t get taught in the classroom. Some of these things are just as important as the things I learned in class if not more so in a way.
1. Be Confident
In college, I learned to be confident in my abilities. Never have I felt both as stupid and as smart as in college. I had never taken the time to sit down and realize how little I actually knew, but more importantly I never knew that I had to be confident in what I didn’t know in order to understand what I needed to learn.
2. Ask Questions
In high school, it was always considered a negative quality to be curious or to have questions. It was considered a terrible trait to become the teacher’s pet. In college, however, I have gotten very close to a few of my professors, and even if I don’t take their classes, I still swing by to ask questions if I am unsure of something I am doing. To begin with I was worried that having so many questions would make me seem less intelligent compared to my classmates, but my teachers were right in that, “If you don’t ask you may never know.” Now I just ask questions till the teacher regrets allow me into the room.
3. Join a Club
While I may be the poster child for people who roll their eyes when someone mentions that they are joining a fraternity or sorority, I have come to see the importance of fellowship with friends and people who have similar interests. Turns out a lot of people at college are diverse and have a lot of different thoughts. There aren't just sororities and fraternities though. You may join a finance club or vet club, and then end up making a friend who introduces you to Japan club.
4. Be More Outgoing
While I was never really the shy type, college has made me a much more outgoing person. College is different from high school because most people who go to higher education want to be there. This means you have to be outgoing and competitive if you want to keep pace with your peers. I cruised through grade school with relative ease, but college has shown me that in order to prosper I have to really put in more effort.
5. Friends Will Become Your Competition
Friends are an invaluable asset in life as they will open many doors for you and possibly even help you get hired to a job until you can establish a name for yourself in your field. Honestly, sometimes it is more important who you know that what you know. That being said those friends who you have spent the past four years learning with and laughing with will become your competition once you leave the classroom. Jobs will be limited, and you are going to be pitted against your friends to win. It's like the Hunger Games except with more blood and less plot, but this competitive nature in college is what makes having friends more interesting in college in my opinion.
So you see, I learned a lot from my classes over the years, and although I still have a lot more to learn in the classroom, some of the most important lessons, like being confident and curious, were not taught to me during a math class; they were taught to me by mentors and friends who have helped push me further towards my goal of graduating in May. So in classic cheesy fashion, I would like to end this article by thanking them all for teaching me much more than what I paid for.
