The statement that “the transition from high school to college might be difficult” is a huge understatement for me. It might be for you as well. I went from almost failing high school and thinking that college was going to be a breeze to dreading having to go to class every day. One day I decided to take a step out of my paranoid mind and saw things for how they really were. College wasn’t as bad as I had thought it was. I was risking more by not going. I had to at least try it before I judged it. Yes, college is hard, but it is not too hard for you.
When you hear the word “college” what do you think of? Some may think of college as being a gateway to many opportunities. Others may think that it is not worth the time, stress and effort. Based on my college experience I have held both views. In high school I didn’t take it very seriously. I was very laid back and procrastinated frequently. When I was at my final years of high school I rarely went to class and when I did it would only be for about a day or two a week. I didn’t understand the point of going to high school and learning all this useless stuff. I did not realize that high school was my preparation for college and school is what you make it. While reading the article “Learning (Your First Job)” I found that Robert Leamnson has some pretty good points about school and learning. He states that “…learning is not something that just happens to you, it is something that you do to yourself” (1). He also says that “…you do want to learn something while getting a diploma” (1). From this information I take away that you must be willing to learn in order to learn and you need to be engaged in the journey in order to get to the destination. Yes, we might not agree with all the things that you have to learn in school, but enjoy the things that you have been interested in while in school otherwise you will be stuck in the position of wondering what it is all for like I and many others have done. High school isn’t there just for doing tasks and getting grades. It is to prepare you for college. It is there for you to learn how to learn.
So, what is learning how to learn and how does this have anything to do with college? Well, when I first entered college I was overwhelmed with work and would overthink the simplest tasks. This reflected my high school performance. Since I didn’t attend high school very often, I did not have the experience of a school environment. I didn’t have the drive or study practice that would transfer from grade to grade. I was so focused on the useless information being taught that I did not realize what mattered most. It may sound simple, but just practicing doing work in general is very important. When you don’t do your school work for a long while you start to get too comfortable. Everything is fine until you are presented with a task. You are very capable of doing that task, but are forced out of your comfort zone and into uncharted/abandoned territory. By simply going to school and getting into the habit of completing tasks you are more well off than someone who hasn’t. I know that I’ve been talking a lot about high school, but learning and practicing learning doesn’t stop with high school. It travels through college and life afterwards as well.
