We all have them: Days, weeks, even months at a time when working toward that degree becomes such an incessant pain in the ass you can no longer punish yourself into doing it. When you realize the term “writer’s block” is the most divinely beautiful idiom in common usage, fabricated by generations of desperate slackers and a tacit acknowledgment of the bureaucratic bullshit that permeates virtually every aspect of your daily life.
These onerous times are often accompanied by a period of deep inward thinking — a precarious personal evaluation of where you are, what you’re doing and what you want to be doing. More often than not, such questions are met by a lack of answers and an impressive variety of expletives and bewildered rage.
And yet, there seem to be few options to change tack and try something new. After studying for so many semesters, you are committed to stay, and, what’s more, you have forgotten the alternatives.
Well, I’m here to remind you failure is an attractive alternative.
You know that class you’re taking — the argumentative subject that makes you feel like a jerk, with the inept teaching assistant? Or the one with material you wish you had cared about enough to learn sooner but can’t give a damn about now? Take a minute and bring it back into perspective that you are here by choice and that success is measured in different ways and is hardly accurately represented by a letter grade on a transcript.
Academic sluggishness happens to the best of us. Sadly, and partly because of the social pressure placed on rapidly earning a degree, it can be so discouraging that students allow it to diminish their motivation and exhaust their ability to explore other opportunities.
Having a degree is meant to open doors, but the pursuit of one may close others. It is imperative for students to remind themselves of this and to evaluate how well they are doing in college against what they might otherwise be engaged in. If this means resigning yourself to failing one or more classes, then I believe the appropriate attitude to adopt is this: Screw it.
Unabashed, resounding and determined failure also has its own invaluable insights. Namely, it’s embarrassing as hell. But most importantly, you are able to control the situation more than it may seem. And, as hackneyed as it may sound, if you are resilient, you can learn from your mistakes.
With the amount of money going toward tuition, being able to accept that you may not be ready for college is not only an important decision but an economical one as well.
Receiving an education and a degree can be a fulfilling endeavor, but often so much emphasis is placed on academic pursuits that it is easy to overlook the potential for achievement elsewhere. Thus, if you are trying to convince yourself that you must remain at an institution you have little connection to or lack of interest in, perhaps you should instead be trying to convince yourself of why you should be taking up that job opportunity or chance to travel until you have a better idea of what you want out of college.
Ian Rodenhouse is a junior economics major. He can be reached at rodenhouse at umdbk dot com.
