Today in class I was given the article "10 Rules for going To College When Nobody Really Expected You To" and for the most part I agree with Joe Rodriguez. Yes, you should not waste your time doing nothing and you should not buy needless things just to say you have them. I also agree with him that in college you should be more diverse, introduce yourself to new people,cultures, and ideas. It is also a great idea to be focused, to ignore career confusion and focus on what you want to do with your life.
That being said, I do have a problem with his tenth rule. In that rule he says that you should always think as a student, devote most of your time to the campus and the rest to a job and to dump friends who necessarily will not be at your level of education or bother with education. I find this way of going about college to be miserable.
Yes, people should devote their time to work and school, but a break is always a great idea. A resting period from such a tedious and stressful life is healthy. Having a moment just to laugh and let your mind wonder is great r&r for your mental health and having good friends does the something. One should never abandon friends because you feel they are beneath you. Its that cold-hearted and cynical thinking that creates misery.
It is reasonable to dump friends who create nothing but trouble for you or bring you down, but the friends who though might not care about their future is a different story.These people are obviously your friend either because they make you smile, you can relate, or they are just supportive. Those are valuable to your education as much as a friend who seems to know everything is. They give you that emotional support and release that everyone needs whether you know it or not and being able to be balanced in life is what makes college not only a valuable asset, but a worth while experience as well.
I agree that you shouldn't spend all of your college time in the books or working at your job. That just causes stress to build, and it's always good to get away and have some fun. On the other hand, I don't thing Rodriguez was stating that you should get rid of your friends altogether. Instead, you should just separate yourself from them when it comes to getting things done. If you have friends who don't care about their future, then what makes you think that they will care about yours enough to support you? There is a time to work and a time to have fun, and if you keep those separate then your college life shouldn't be miserable.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, Kevin. College is not all about classes and getting perfect grades. It’s about growing as a person, both scholarly and socially. You should be allowed to hang out with friends and maybe find a special someone. Just because you get into a top school doesn't mean you need to devote all your time to just school. But, I do understand that you should drop your friends that are not going down the right path. You shouldn't have negative people in your life. Say you have a big homework assignment that's due at midnight, and a friend says “Come with us to get food! Forget the assignment! One assignment isn't going to hurt your grade!” But when they say that 3, or maybe even 4 times: your grade has dropped a lot. Those are the kind of people that need to be removed from your life. Get friends that WANT to study with you, not take you away from that. Bottom line is that you need to have good grades to be successful, but don’t be a dull person in your college life. Kids need to know that they should be studying, but once in a while it’s okay to turn up!
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