Change your ways, lest ye be damned.
Not in the Willard Preacher way, though. Damned to a career stuck terminally in the middle of the pack. Or to a college experience where the closest thing you have to social time is working on the group projects in your biology class.
Something, it seems, has convinced us that the way to prosperity and happiness is not becoming an educated, wise and well-rounded person, but rather, possessing the most complicated college transcript in our particular zip code.
Maybe it's you, maybe it's your roommate, maybe it's a friend you'd like to see more of, but someone in your life is doing way, way, way too much up here at dear old State.
You know the type. Pursuing three majors, four minors, working an internship, volunteering on the weekends, taking 21 credits, and would be taking more if there were more hours in the day. And most importantly, knows how to find a cup of coffee in less than five minutes from anywhere on campus.
Some of us feel the need to take on everything we can in our college experience, always making time for something more. After all -- every white line on our day planner represents a usable block of time, doesn't it? Who needs sleep, relaxation, a social life? Our GPA is hovering over us at all times, like a demented Black Hawk Helicopter trying to find a spare moment in which to touch down. Now get me a Red Bull, damn it.
It's easier to sell yourself if you can dazzle 'em with quantity. Walk into a job interview with degrees in turfgrass science, Jewish studies and quantum physics, and the interviewer will know that you're hard working, intelligent and a little insane.
But, as logic might suggest, could this quantity be, in fact, hurting the quality?
One professor suggested that no undergraduate should ever be taking more than 15 credits in a semester -- 12, ideally. Any more than that, and it falls back to cramming so much knowledge into your head that most of it is bound to fall back out in a very short amount of time.
A lot of students have a rough time letting go of the whole "grades" thing, and understandably so. Elementary and secondary schools are forced to produce high standardized test scores, or else they risk losing tax credits, funding or worse. A recent decision in Florida actually ties teachers' pay raises to standardized test scores. America's educational system is woefully dedicated to making the achievement show on paper, not in the face and mind of the child.
But we're past all that. This is higher education. This is what all the drudgery in high school was for. Perhaps its time we focus a bit less on our GPA and transcript and a little more on what we actually, you know, learned.
College is as much about becoming a fully functional human being as it is about getting ready for the professional world. No matter how hard you work and how many degrees you've racked up, those who get furthest in life are those with the most practical knowledge, careful insight, and charisma -- not the ones with the most credits on their transcript.
Remember, when our parents were in school, the idea of having two majors (let alone more) was relatively unheard of. And despite this lack of verifiable overwork, they all managed to succeed enough to send their fortunate offspring to Happy Valley.
It's going against our instincts to relax a bit and take things as they come with regard to our education. But no one ever ended up in the gutter because they only took 15 credits in a semester.
It's not too late to change your ways. It's easy. Just take some time to actually think about something, rather than rushing blindfolded through your day. Life will wait.
