It all starts with a rant…
Good evening, or good morning as the case may be. It seems that we all have our preferences when it comes to night and day. Currently, I am much preferring night. It is Saturday, it is the weekend. It’s funny, weekends should be a time of relaxation; but for me, as a student, they are filled with more intense studying than is completed throughout the week. This should be an oddity, but for me it hasn’t been – not since I went back to school.
I have something to add to my educational wishlist for future students: affordable education. In making this request, I must confess a few different things. First of all, I’m a non-traditional student (which basically means that my brain is a bit older and must choose what information it retains – although that doesn’t necessarily mean that I get to choose how long I can retain it for). Second, because of the expenses, I am forced to take more than a full-load of courses. You may ask why I am whining about this – after all those extra courses are free of charge, no additional cost. What this means to me, despite the fact that I maintain an excellent GPA (currently a 3.75), is that I do not learn the information to the extent that I should and I am forced to rely on a method that is based loosely on the cramming of information all of the time. In all honesty: I don’t like this. I feel as if I am cheating myself. I also feel that I am unable to really focus on concepts, ideas, and subjects that interest me. Worst of all, I recognize that I am beginning to associate schoolwork with things that I would rather not do (primarily because it is all so overwhelming). For me, spending a few hours an evening not studying (or god forbid I should take a whole evening or two off during any given week) puts me behind in my homework. In fact, I don’t think I have been caught up at all this semester. Somehow, I have managed to fake my way through it and often wind up reading texts after the required timeline. I am not proud of this, but it is my reality. Why not wait until summer or break? For me, breaks do not come; they are filled with playing catch-up. And summer…well, that consists of even more classes.
So… again, let’s work on affordable education and loan limits that will allow students to complete their education and prevent students from having to work while going to school. I cannot tell you how often I hear students annoyed that they have to give up a shift in order to do homework or work on a project. This bothers me. A lot. Shouldn’t they be focusing on their education and gaining life experience? Shouldn’t they be volunteering and doing meaningful things for their community? Shouldn’t they be more than slaves to the almighty dollar?
