I feel like if I could do college all over again, I’d get it perfect this time: perfect grades, the best internships, a smoking hot girlfriend. If I’ve learned nothing else, I’ve become a pro at being a college student. With this experience, I have a few words of wisdom for you.
Over the course of four years, you learn a few things. You learn the fine art of begging your parents for money. You learn to “cook” ““ meaning, you just learn fancier ways to heat up food. You learn that PowerPoint really does destroy brain cells.
What you don’t learn ““ unless you take the time to think about it ““ is what the college experience means. It’s not about the piece of paper you get at the end, the stuff you learned in your classes (and shortly forgot), or even the people you’ve met and the experiences you shared. I think the most important thing to get out of college besides learning how to think is learning how to love learning. This is a very personal experience because you have to figure out what motivates you. That is not easy, and not everybody gets there. But it is worth it.
There are two components to achieving this. I think learning is really about being open to new things and having the drive to actively search them out. Being open is the first step. Being open to new experiences is not about trying a new flavor of smoothie or listening to a different station on the radio. It’s about taking other people’s values and philosophies on life seriously.
Once I started working at the Daily Bruin, I looked at the world in a different way. The world became my textbook, alive and full of stories. You don’t always think about it when you’re speedwalking past the CALPIRG people on Bruin Walk to get to class, but everybody and everything around you has a story.
The second half to the equation is actively searching out these new experiences. Any experience that passively “happens” to you is usually not new to you at all. You have to take charge of your education and don’t let anything get in your way. When I say education, I mean that in the broadest sense possible ”“ not just your textbooks but all life has to offer. Don’t let your parents get in the way of that, don’t let a slavish commitment to grades get in the way of that, don’t let any red tape get in the way of that.
If you don’t feel like you’re learning anything, then stop what you’re doing. Drop a class. Quit your internship. Make some new friends. What’s important is that you’re fascinated with what you’re learning. Become an interesting person!
I believe that what interests us is what keeps us going. Our interests will live on once the luster of a shiny new degree wears off. To achieve something meaningful, it must first be meaningful to us.
Knowing what I know now, it’s easy to think that I could do college “perfectly” if I had the chance to do it over again. But actually, I do think I did college about as perfectly as I could have ”“ for me.
It’s not about what you learn, it’s about how far you’ve come. Remember that while you’re here and after you leave.
Anzelc was the Graphics editor for 2009-2010 and a Design contributor from 2007-2009.