To the Editor:
There’s a lot more to college than classes, yet it is so frighteningly easy to become caught up in studying and completing assignments on time that we lose sight of that important realization.
It is particularly easy to ignore the true value in learning. The pressure to make the grade replaces the emotional and mental need we have to love what we learn. That need is very obvious when we’re young, when parents and teachers work together to make everything fun. Somehow, as we grow up, we orient ourselves to succeed. We estrange ourselves from the present and focus on the future. Time becomes especially important because we really want to get to the future. The present is just a means to an end. So we become guilty of repeatedly taking little interest in the course material for its own sake—obviously, we don’t have time for that. Our notes and assigned readings, then, are a means towards a single end: a good grade in the course. Our expensive college education is, then, another means to an end. And we are all rushing to get to that end. Yet remember that modern science seems to make unacceptable any supernatural guarantees of us having more than this life to live.
So I wish we could all stop running in circles. Our lives are so much more complex than we seem to allow for. There seem to be thousands of moral and ethical dilemmas running through our lives every day. These dilemmas include all types of personal relationships, academic honesty, and ethical struggles within one’s self. They do not require lecture summaries; they are about who we are, and cannot be “crammed” for, nor are they resolved with a numerical grade. They should not be overlooked, because I think in doing so, we overlook ourselves altogether, and miss out on life.
One example in my life deals with human interactions. I have found that maintaining a healthy and close relationship in college is more difficult than any exam I have taken (and comparable to pulling teeth). I am not just talking about intimate relationships, but also platonic ones. Ethical issues abound in interactions, and many times I have found myself at a crossroad—completely and totally conflicted as to which path to take. Yet if this is about learning, then I think being conflicted is a very good thing. It means we are grappling with understanding—not stagnating. We are learning. We are attempting to evolve into something better.
So I’m really not going to lie. There’s a lot more to college than classes. Keep in mind, however, that people tend to give advice they can’t follow, and that when writing it down on paper, it may sound more pedantic than intended.
Elena Sebe
CSCI ’08
