Column by Gisselle Hernandez, Assistant Features Editor
Stop.
Just stop waiting for Friday to arrive.
Stop saying you’re just “riding out” this week so you can graduate.
Stop making obtaining a six-figure salary your ultimate goal in the future.
There is more to it than that.
So much more. Obviously, education is the reason you’re here, but, as we said in my Ethics class earlier this week, college isn’t supposed to be about making it through another week, another class, another exam.
Too many students are too focused on attempting to make a 4.0 GPA, having their resume be filled up with all possible extracurricular activities that they forget to build relationships, forget to get out of their comfort zone, forget to try to learn new things about themselves.
William Deresiewicz, in his book “Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite,” said college is an opportunity to stand outside the “real world” for a few years and away from the familiar grasp of your family, not just to make sure you get a good job. This is the pause college students should make the most out of before emerging into the working world.
You should appreciate the short moment in your life that is college, where getting good grades isn’t the only thing that it is for. When you graduate, do you really want to remember it as having all-nighters for exams and being so stressed about work every day you just can’t wait for the weekend?
Even your classes should be enlightening experiences themselves. Every day you sit in front of your professor, you should enjoy it. For a lot of people, college is the last time they will be in the classroom.
A student in my ethics class brought up a good point: apart from the general required classes, the classes you take should be about things that genuinely interest you and make you want to learn more, not cause you to keep glancing at the clock every five minutes.
I come from the developing country of Belize where even the thought of coming to a state university is beyond the reach of many people. It baffles me when I hear people wanting to just get out of school as soon as possible because other people would be dying to come to a place where you can discover a whole other side of yourself, not just academically.
Try to come up with things to do that are worth waking up to, and not just look forward to the parties on the weekends. When you finally do graduate, you will wish you had talked to that girl in your class, spent more time with your friends or taken classes you were actually passionate about.
After all, those things are much more valuable than some job.