Hashtag Collegiate

It's that time again. I've heard the question "When was the last time you made a blog post?" with enough frequency to make me write another one (you do this to yourselves, you know). So here we go:

I've been thinking a lot lately about college--makes sense, I guess, seeing as I'm attending one. All of us here seem to be so stressed out all the time, and I've been examining why. I mean, it didn't take long to figure out, honestly, having lived it myself--we've got classwork up the wazoo! Golly gee willickers, what a discovery!

Obvious revelation aside, my GPA has been gradually increasing with each new semester, and I think I've worked out why that is. The biggest reason (and, watch out, this'll be a shocker!) is because I'm actually learning things here. The more you learn, the better you get at handling all the work they throw at you. "Well that's great!" I hear you all say. And yeah, you're mostly right. Being smarter is nice. But there's a catch.

While new concepts aren't that difficult to extrapolate from what we've already been taught, the workload seems to increase with each semester. It's almost as if the scheming bastards who wrote these curricula know that you should be able to handle the work they throw at you with greater efficiency than you did when you were a freshman (I mean, duh, that's just common sense). So they naturally give you more work than you got before.

Now, some professors understand the struggle of the students and want to lighten their load a little. I've had a few classes that required less work outside of the classroom, which was a welcome breather. I also, however, had other professors (and this applies to most of the ones I hadn't previously categorized) who seem to think that their class is the only class you're taking. You can probably see why that would be stressful (and a lot of you reading this can probably sympathize). I've had a lot of friends leave this school because they couldn't handle it. Thankfully they all took the less drastic option of taking leave, but I know some of my fellow students have not been so lucky.

I know that we don't want to think about that more drastic option, because no one should ever have to be driven to that point. But I think it stands to remember that it happens sometimes. Stress can be your undoing if you let it--you just have to be stronger than that. In my case, I surround myself with people who I enjoy the company of. My socializing is a coping mechanism. We all have our own ways to deal with the pressure, some of which are less healthy than others. I won't really delve much further into that right now, though.

Right now, I'd like to focus on listing some priorities. I think these are all fairly obvious, but sometimes people tend to forget. Let's just get down to it, shall we?

1. Top priority: living. We're going to college so that we have a shot at a brighter, more successful future. Need to be alive to actually have a successful future, though. Graduating from an institution like this one, especially, will almost guarantee success; if you can make it through here, you can make it anywhere, kiddo. Just keep doing your thing and make sure to keep breathing (eating and sleeping are also important, but the par for the course can be a little below average for these four years of your life on those, so just do your best).

2. Getting a job. Sort of another big no-brainer. We're going to college to eventually be employed. That's why we're learning all these fancy new skills--we want to look good so we can get hired! The best way to do this is to have an impressive portfolio. Alternatively, perhaps you should be able to show off your skills at the drop of a hat (if what you do doesn't take days upon days of development time and bug-fixing, that is). If you have a finished product that's actually published (talkin' to you, fellow GSAS Majors), employers will definitely take you seriously. And if that product is actually good? Hot damn, you might have them contacting you for an employment opportunity!

3. Getting experience. Really scoring big on the "duh" counter today. Might be a new record. Employers are looking for people with experience. Once you get an internship or get your foot out in the real world somehow? You're golden. They aren't even going to care what your GPA is anymore if you get rave reviews from whoever it is that gave you a shot in the first place. Although having a GPA might still be crucial if your employer is absolutely terrible at networking (which he definitely won't be, seeing as he's probably at the top of some food chain or another).

So really what I'm saying here is "Don't sweat it too much." Just do your work and learn your stuff, and everything will turn out fine so long as you don't let the stress get to you. Taking a little bit of time to de-stress can save your life. Diploma don't mean shit to a corpse, so take care of yourself, dammit!

Now go do the thing, everyone!

--J