By Jonathan Resendez/south news editor
Going to college is like passing a kidney stone: It’s excruciatingly painful and frustrating, but if done successfully, your quality of life rises considerably.
Fortunately, I’ve never had a kidney stone. But I’ve been told they are the male equivalent to childbirth, which I’ve been told has no equivalent on the pain threshold meter. I also don’t have a child, but after three years of getting my responsibilities straight at TCC, I’m going to pick a name out of a baby book for my Associate of Arts degree and consider it my first kid.
After all, the lengths I went through to attain it involved sleepless nights and gave me my first gray hairs at the age of 21. (To all the parents who currently attend TCC, I commend you. I would probably have an aneurism if I had the responsibilities you have.)
Apart from the wealth of knowledge I acquired by successfully completing the core curriculum here, I learned an invaluable lesson. Sometimes you just have to close the textbook, turn off the cell phone and go experience life. This may sound lame, but when you look back in 10 years and see that all you did was work, go to school and text message, you will realize it was you who indeed was lame.
There are usually two types of students: the ones who are concerned with passing a class by just scraping by and meeting the minimum requirements and the ones who want an “A.” The former usually morph into the latter near the end of their stay here at TCC, which is when they start getting involved in extracurricular activities and doing whatever is necessary to beef up their resume and get into a good university. These students are susceptible to letting school consume them and forgetting that the skills we learn inside the classroom are meant to help us better enjoy life outside of it.
I have family and friends my age who, upon my announcement that I was going back to school, acted as if I was going to get a vasectomy. When I tell them I can’t go out, they assume I’m at home drinking warm milk and watching PBS. They, as well as many other people, have a misconception that being responsible means being boring. While this can be true because school does take sacrifice and hard work, it doesn’t have to be true. Being responsible doesn’t have to be synonymous with being boring.
Having fun and living life doesn’t mean going out, getting drunk or doing the same things you’ve been doing since high school, either. Try something different.
I recommend doing something you’ve never done before or have always wanted to do. Do something you’re not sure about or that makes you nervous. Talk to somebody you woudn’t normally approach. Go learn something that can’t be taught out of a book. Get your hands dirty.
Through all the exams, labs, essays, university applications, honor societies, deadlines and stress — remember to live life a little. Keep in mind that everything, EVERYTHING, has consequences.
But at the same time, remember that not having done something can sometimes have the worst consequences.
