Before you go off college it seems that every person you come in contact with has some sort of advice they think you need to know in order to survive the next chapter of your life. Some advise you to study hard, meet new people, or try new things. Ironically, some even tell you not to ever change. What is missing from these tips is the truth about what you can learn in college regardless of your major or school.
Let me be honest for a second. College is hard. There is more stress put on your shoulders than you ever thought you can handle. Not all of that stress is directly related to your classes. There is endless possibilities for stress such as relationships, scheduling, finances, responsibilities, and undoubtedly the mistakes that we all make during our time at school. But in all of these obstacles we are taught one important lesson, whether it is recognized at the time or not. College teaches you who you are and more importantly why you are that way.
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Think about it. Growing up throughout school you are given a chore and then graded on your performance of that task. In college we are challenged to reflect and rely on our personal convictions about something. In literature class you are not asked to repeat what was meant by Frost, Dickenson, or whomever else you are studying; instead your professor asks "what do you think this means?" I had never been asked why so much in my life until I came to college, and honestly this was really hard for me to overcome. Why? It seems to be a simple enough question but when I was challenged by my professors I found myself falling short of an answer.
See the problem with the question why is that the answer is subjective. Students haven't been conditioned to think in this manner. The hardest part about subjective learning is that there is no correct answer. Being a college student, we have all learned to support our arguments with textual evidence but the difference between a decent argument and a powerful one is that the author has a strong connection to it.
I struggled with this because I didn't always know why I had the opinions I had or how to support them. I spent much of my first semester trying to find the correct answers that I thought I was supposed to produce. Clearly there are some subjects where there are right and wrong answers, but for me those classes were limited. College for me and for many others has been a safe place where we got the chance to figure out how to be the person we want to be as adults.
The greatest thing you can learn in college is about yourself. Maybe the same person you were as a freshman is who you will become as an adult; but maybe if you take the chance to explore more about yourself over your college career you will change and gain a wider perspective than you once had.
