You know it's hard to believe four years have went by in university. It sucks to say this, but I won't be nearing graduation until a year from now. I'm unmotivated and I have a tendency to give up. I'm also lazier than anyone could ever imagine. I don't hand in assignments, I don't go to classes, and I don't study for exams. I'm basically the perfect representation of the college senior meme. Hell it's amazing that I haven't been kicked out yet (there have been times where I was really close to). Although I messed up a lot in university, I did learn a lot of valuable lessons in the process which I'd like to share.
1) Find that Motivation and I Mean Really Find It
I always struggled with getting motivated to do anything university related. I suppose the prime motivation is to complete my degree and get out of academia. It really wasn't a strong enough reason to me though. I had always undervalued my degree as some piece of paper and line in my resume. I have had thoughts about dropping out and just stopping because I didn't really see the point of it. I didn't really think about my future at all. I always thought that if I had some job that I'd be fine on income. However, that's not the case. Recently, I started to have thoughts about moving out from my parent's place. Part of the reason is that I have become less tolerable of my family. I also feel that I am being too sheltered by them and that I need to live on my own to become independent. I realized that just having any kind of income wouldn't suffice. I researched the cost of living and I'd probably need a decent salary to live on. Which means getting a decent job. It looks terrible that I have little work experience and it'd probably look even worse without a degree. Although a degree doesn't show qualifications as opposed to work experience, what it does show is commitment. I think I'll take anything that would spruce up my chances of getting hired.
2) Social Interactions are Highly Encouraged
I used to be the type of person who avoided people like the plague. I never enjoyed talking to my classmates and regarded them as schmucks. I would always have bland conversations with other students and I would keep contact to a minimum even in group assignments. I had a bad attitude towards school back then which made me further discouraged from interacting with my classmates. I think what got to me the most was the boring chatting that came up (such as weather, what I do on my spare time, etc). After talking to a variety of people in the cosplay community, I found out from experience that a conversation is really difficult to keep going when there's a lack of common interest. It's especially hard for people who don't know each other to continue a discussion properly. I realized I was being overly demanding over my classmates (complete strangers) for no reason. To be honest, it's probably awkward meeting anyone for the first time and engaging in a conversation. That's why questions are asked or random common topics are mentioned. I guess it was the initial meeting part that I always hated. I am forced into a lot of group assignments this semester and it's not as if my group members are intolerable. It's not really that bad talking to them and they help me keep up with the work in the course.
3) Time Management is Critical
I think the most important thing you can get out of university is how well you manage your time. You really shouldn't be learning the entire course material the night before, hours before, or even during the examination. Unless your learning speed is top notch and you're a super genius, go for it. Me on the other hand, I need to take my time. I notice that sometimes there will be material I get stuck on which will take me more time to understand. I also noticed that I procrastinate a lot the day before the test or assignment deadline which additionally costs time as well. When this happens and I see that I'm running out of time, I start giving up and accept going unprepared to the exam. If it's an assignment, I wouldn't hand it in because I would rather the grader not see the embarrassment of my rushed and incomplete work. It's really important to start assignments and studying early. It's a lot easier to build your assignment little by little instead of spending a large chunk of work time to meet dates. The same goes for study habits. I know what I'm saying is quite obvious, but I have been accustomed to work on the day of/before and it's been hard to stop doing so. The stress has been getting to me lately and I have to not take time management for granted.
4) Jealousy, Envy, Don't Compare Yourself to Others
I'm someone who has ruined their transcript with failed courses. I'll be graduating later than the average student and my resume's block of work experience is laughable. Yeah, it's depressing seeing others graduate before you. It's horrible knowing others got to have co-op experience before graduating. But you know what, so what. What if all that has happened for them? Why do I care about other students? My main concern is to work on MY graduation. I have to do my best to patch my gpa to my goal average. There's no helping co-op because I had too low of a gpa to qualify. I'll just have to work extra hard to show my qualifications. I used to put too much concern over how well others are doing. I was blindsided by them. I became disheartened to work for my own accomplishments. I felt like giving up, but what I really needed to do was put in more effort. I am in no position to worry about others, if I had the time to do that then I should spend that time trying to improve myself.
5) Don't be Overconfident and Don't Underestimate
I don't know where my confidence comes from. This mostly stems to the time management section. I'm the type of person to say "oh that's easy" about a course and then either make stupid mistakes on the test or choose not to study for it and try to bullshit my answers. I mentioned above that I'm used to doing work the day of/before. Well there were times where I did manage to meet deadlines and pull off high grades or perfect. I also have managed to get a perfect on a final exam once and earn an A+ in a course I never attended. When I look back on it, those happened because I was well prepared for the course/assignment. Now with new material being introduced before me, I don't have the leisure to underestimate material I've never seen before. With my attention span growing shorter with age, I don't have the confidence to consistently spend a large block of time on an assignment. It's better to go with the safe option to spend more time for better results instead of being overconfident by spending the least amount of effort and expecting the best result.
Sorry for the long post, it took awhile describing my experiences. University has put me through a lot and I gained a bunch of tips which I can hopefully apply later after I graduate.
No comments:
Post a Comment