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Making it though the first few weeks of my freshman year was harder than I thought. Sure enough, I was able to find my way around, eventually, but now a new challenge had sprung up before me. Classes and Professors! Gone are the days when I had to refer to my teachers as “Mr.” and “Ms.”. Now, it’s more like “Professor” or “Dr.” And to tell you the truth it took me a semester to figure out the difference! In my first day of class, I noticed another difference between my teachers in high school and the so-called professors I was now facing. What was that difference? It’s a fact that professors were much tougher than teachers!
They’ll never take “I don’t know” for an answer. If you don’t know something; try to guess. Just make sure it’s an intelligent one or else you’ll be ridiculed right out of class. I learned that one the hard way! Just to make sure I never had to go through such embarrassment again, I read every reading assignment given in class. It came to the point that I’d read a couple of extra chapters just to boast! Gone are the days where I would sit in class and float on cloud 9. Here in college, I had to be both physically and mentally present. Does that suck? If you think so, maybe college isn’t for you!
In high school, all we had to do was be present (sometimes just physically), write a couple of term papers (or copy off someone else’s) and take a few exams (copying was still an option here) and that was it. It’s a far cry from what college is now. Here, you are expected to have an opinion about everything! Have you ever challenged a teacher in high school? You probably ended up in the Principal’s office when you did. Here, professors actually provoke you to challenge them and doing so isn’t considered deviant behavior. So much for detention!
The one thing I liked most about college is the fact that professors made sure you don’t learn crap like you did in high school. Most of the learning was geared towards something to help you in your chosen field. Many professors, whom I knew, were great at motivating their students in ascertaining what information was vital and which bits was absolute trash! Almost nothing in class was irrelevant and everything seemed to revolve around healthy debate and discussion. We were expected to be analytical and critical of what was going on around us. In this sense, professors acted more as guides than teachers and almost every professor was open for consult about things we didn’t understand and some would even offer advice on what books to read to gain more information and insight.
For the first time in my life, my brain was active and it wouldn’t stop! I gained a great hunger for learning and spent every available time venturing on my newfound quest for knowledge. That’s the secret of success to college; you got to have that drive to learn. Participate in class, add in your own insights and perspectives and analyze everything possible. College isn’t cheap and you wouldn’t want to waste all that money on just partying and hanging out. This is your chance to set yourself up for the future so make the most of it while you can.
