My Relationship with School
So supposedly people go to school to learn things. I've never really experienced that sensation, but that's what people tell me. Surprisingly, I got more out of this semester than I have out of previous semesters, but not because of my classes. It's more the fact that I was in the class to begin with? It's a weird thing to say, but the fact that I am 20 years old and somebody is telling me I am going to lose points in some class because I have better things to do, seems just a little bit ridiculous. I have . So I show up, because the majority of the time I feel too bad if I skip class and go do something else. And this is what happens:
1.) Show up to class
10 minutes early to get my seat that I always sit in just in case there are some truly people in the world that want to take my seat after sitting in the same place for 3 months.
2.) Getting settled.
If I am in a lab class (god help those professors) I usually log into the computer, sign into google, my website, and start doing something. Most of the time I am just on Golf WRX or Facebook and I am just looking for things. For example, as I sit in my communications class, I am writing this blog. Granted, the rest of the class is still taking that quiz that took 2 minutes to complete, but hey, more power to 'em.
3.) Participate.
This may be a surprise to some of you, but I am actually really good at paying attention to the class material, while doing something else not even slightly related to the discussion. Unless it's today, where we are coincidentally talking about writing blogs... which is perfect! So normally I will sit there and write something, or research, or watch golf if it's Thursday and Friday. But I guarantee if you ask any of my four teachers from this semester, or the ones before that, and the ones before that, they will tell you that I am the biggest participator in class. Or at least in the top 3. Sometimes you just have that girl that never has anything useful to say, but also never shuts her mouth. I can write this entire blog post, and oh wait my professor just asked a question, which brings me to step four.
4.) Make it up as I go.
So here we are sitting in class, talking about an article we were SUPPOSED to read for homework. Did I? Well, you know the answer. "Are you surprised that people will share an article before they read it, or without even reading it?" And in my mind I'm thinking HELL NO. I talked about it in my last blog... like hello teacher, did you read my blog? I've discussed this, let's move on. But of course, that's completely unreasonable to expect somebody to read my posts and then talk about in class. As a matter of fact now that I think about it, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Regardless, that's my life. So even though I didn't read the article, I've already spoken three times. Me and another girl have been going back and forth basically describing everything. Now, she's a much better student than I. She takes notes, she asks a lot of questions, and she's just generally a good person to be in class with. Not an annoying know it all like others, but she doesn't shy away from knowing her material.
5.) Research.
Okay now this is the most confusing. But this is what makes school REMOTELY worth it. And by remotely I mean, remotely. Think deserted Island. Think needle in a haystack. Think of a piece of pizza that only takes you one bite to finish. Yah, it's that bad. But it's my fault. It's not really school's fault. Well.. sort of. So here let me explain.
I have never been satisfied by what school teaches me. I have always wanted to know more. Education moves at such a slow pace it's unbelievable. So it's never enough for me. So I start to do my own research. I take the book I was forced to buy and I go through the whole thing. Okay so now in the first month of class I know everything. Which makes class worse, because now that I know everything (hypothetically of course, the class can sometimes still have projects and other discussions and that kind of thing, I'm not a genius. Just a curious person. Don't hate me for it, or do, whatever floats your boat), I am bored all over again. So now I have to start all over again. So I start to listen in class for a little bit, until my professor says something remotely interesting. Once they say that remotely interesting thing, back to the computer I go. And now in the next half an hour that I have I am going to become an expert in whatever they just said.
6.) Slow and Steady wins the race?
So this is what happens for me. This is why I have such weird views on school. Again, I have no problem with learning, clearly. I love learning. I love knowing things. That is probably one of the things I hate the most; not knowing things. The problem with that, and with what my brain thinks about, is that school isn't enough to fulfill that. School goes too slow. Even here at a four year well established university, well actually, two of them now, it moves so slowly. I have yet to enter a class that is based on media content and not know what the class is going to talk about. I have take 5 different finals in the second week of class and passed them. I have even helped TEACH some of these classes, because my professors said I had to do something. And even when it's a good class, like my Digital class at Carroll, or my Internet Marketing class I am currently in at Aurora, I just figure it out.
I had finished the chapters of my Internet Marketing book after the first two weeks because the subject really captivated me. The subject really made me want to learn more and I was really interested. Not to mention our professor, Leila, is a really good professor. She is professional, she knows what she is talking about, and she is excited to show us and teach us every class. Not to mention she is really excited about the content, because she loves it. She has so much passion for Social, Content, and Marketing, that it makes the class better. But that didn't stop me from just figuring it out on my own because I didn't want to waste 3 months of my life learning something that I could get the basics of in two weeks and then figure it out as I go along.
So a lot of you have asked, and there is your answer. That's my view on school. But again, for I don't even know the number of times I have said this, this does not apply to everybody. Frankly, it probably doesn't apply to any of you reading this. The idea is that you need to know what works for you and your life. You need to decide how you are going to succeed. If that means you study harder than anyone else in class, and you barely get by, that's fine. If it means you don't continue education, that's fine too. But you have to know what is going to work for you and do it. If you are like me, and you are stuck in a world that revolves around fake attribution, then you understand. You might be somebody who knows a lot of information and just doesn't know what to do with it. You may be such a good learner, that you are a terrible student. You may be such a terrible student on paper, but the teacher's favorite student in the classroom. Or you can just be the best you can be. And I think that is where I have landed.
I used to loath school because for me it's so incredibly useless. But now that I have accepted that I have to just do it, I've started to go along with it more. I know my professors as more than just teachers, I talk to them about things going on. I interact with Leila on Twitter all the time. I tell my comm teacher about all my success outside of the classroom, and she always has advice and is so happy for me. I talk to my photography teacher a lot because she is trying to get me into selling my photos. And my IDS teacher is a really interesting guy because he always has another viewpoint. He can always make you think more than you were. Which for me is striking gold.
