Let the reality of the spring semester sink in
With the attention of football season reaching its glorious end, it’s time for the spring semester to begin and focus be brought back to the (current) reality of school. With the list of books students have to buy only stacking up with every new class period attended, a student can start to feel overwhelmed.
Sitting in my first class I couldn’t help but feel like I should be sitting at home reading, exercising at the gym or just being anywhere but here. Then, came the realization that it has been nearly a month since fall semester finals, and with that, a thought. Yes, this is a reality. Spring semester has started and I (like many) am not ready. Like any college student would do, I texted my friend, “Definitely NOT ready for school to start. School has been surreal today.” She texted back, “Same, I’m not ready.”
With a New Year’s resolution to center myself around more positive thoughts, I thought of two ways we (students) can interpret the beginning of a new semester. Either we can choose to be stressed out and frustrated that ‘life’ has started up again OR we can view the beginning of the spring semester as a natural progression toward what college is about; seeking new challenges and growing up along the wild ride of it all.
College is meant to challenge us in our retention of certain areas of knowledge, time management and our ability to make the right decisions to graduate with a degree we’re proud of. After all, each of us is taking on some form of hardship, whether that be financial (debt) and/or time (stretching priorities too thin).
The majority of students at some point in their college career will boast that they are ‘nearly’ independent from their parent’s help and with independence comes the all-too-real idea of ‘adulting.’ Adulting can take many forms like scheduling a dentist appointment for yourself, figuring out financial aid and even (in some cases) learning how to write a check for the first time.
It’s common to sit and joke about how we had to ‘adult’ today, but it really comes down to the reality of a college student’s situation. We’re all here to challenge ourselves, learn our passion, dive deeper into the academic field of our choice and learn as much about ‘adulting’ as we can along the way.
It’s truly amazing when you think about it. Progression.
Think of this, we’re all undergoing new experiences every day that are slowly but surely molding us into the person we’re going to be in the future. Let that sink in.
The beginning of the spring semester shows that, in fact, we as students are seeking to further our education with the knowledge that we will be challenged with the reality of adulting in more ways than one. With that we should say, bring it on.