School Is Cool When You're Interested

Blowing my __________.  Fill in the blank if you can; I won't.

I'm just writing to write.  I don't even know what I want to talk about; maybe I'll start thinking of random profound ("profound") shit as I keep writing.

Sometimes, as I sit in my room and read these textbooks and "review" these notes from my classes, I feel like I'm not learning.  It's almost like the pressure to do well on tests and maintain a GPA keeps me from really learning anything.  I just cram and memorize things long enough to remember them for the test, forget the information after the test and do it all over again for the next test.  Test after test after test after paper after paper.

Hmmm...papers.  I write them, get them back with illegible markings all over them through which my professors try and tell me that I'm not being "clear enough" or it "doesn't make sense"; but after I read through those markings, I still don't really learn anything.  Especially if the paper is about a literary work.  They say you can get through those papers by writing whatever you think the literature is about; but by the time you get the paper back, you realize it doesn't really matter what you think it's about.  If it doesn't make sense to the professor, there goes your A.

Yea, you can talk to the professors about what you don't understand, and get them to help you; but gosh––if all of my attention wasn't on what I can expect on the test, or what the "teacher is thinking," I may actually learn something, I may actually learn MORE.

It doesn't even surprise me anymore when I hear that an undergraduate college degree won't do you much good these days.  One, just about everyone is getting a degree.  Two, it seems like all the attention is on what's going to be on the test.  Seriously, if I kept a tally of how many times I've heard, "...but you don't need to know that," between my freshman year in high school to now (my sophomore year in college), my walls would be FILLED.

What the hell does, "You don't need to know that," mean?  I thought we were supposed to know as much as possible.  WHY am I not supposed to know? ....because it's not on a test.  ....?

Another thing about school and degrees.  I wish people would stop looking at me with the "What the fuck are gonna do with that?" face whenever I tell them that I'm double majoring in English and Psychology.  What blows me even more is when they say, "Oh so you're gonna take the psychology route huh?"  I probably won't.

I know plenty of people that are miserable taking classes they don't want to take because someone told them to or because it's "safer"––safer because it will "guarantee" them a job.  But if you major in biology and don't get into any med school you applied to, you're not guaranteed much right?  Just a thought.  I could be wrong.

I'm not KNOCKING anybody.  Well, maybe I am.  I'm knocking the people who are NOT doing what they want to do––the one's that are doing what they or someone else thinks they should do.

If you're going to dedicate your time to something, you should probably dedicate it to something you're interested in.  You may actually learn something.

I was talking to a peer this week, and she was telling me how annoyed she gets when she sees people rant and complain on social networks about how hard their life is because their major is so difficult.  I told her that the people who rant and complain probably major in things that they're not NATURALLY GOOD at or ENJOY doing.  I know people who major in things like engineering, math or physics, but they NEVER complain about the work.  Whenever I ask them if the work is hard they say, "No, not really," or something of the sort.  And understanding how they can say that isn't difficult that difficult when I think about it––they actually like that stuff, and they're naturally good at it.  If I told any of them to sit in several English classes where we talk about different literary works and/or write papers, they'd pull their hair out.

Anyways, so out of all of this I guess what I'm saying is that I wish people would do what they're good at and what they're interested in.  They may learn a lot more; they probably wouldn't complain; they wouldn't feel like they're wasting their time; and they'd probably be a lot HAPPIER.

We only live this life once right?.....so why settle for something that you don't even want because it's "safe?"  And why limit what you learn??  Know as MUCH as you want and as MUCH as you can.

.....I'm not saying schools are terrible and no one should go either.

And that's it for today's rant.