For Rutgers students, the spring semester is looming gravely just a day ahead of us, and for many others it’s already underway. After many of us have spent the month-long break eating, sleeping, and spending upwards of 72 hours watching complete seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation (which is everybody, right? not just me?), it’s understandable why some aren’t particularly excited to get back into the grind of a scholastic lifestyle. Some people fear the workload, others dread the emotional stresses of college life, while still others would simply prefer being home with their families. However, despite a number of reasons to feel otherwise, I’m remaining hugely excited for this upcoming semester and have learned to adopt a real optimism towards the whole process.
One reason why people seem to find themselves anxious about returning to school is that, frankly, school is not easy. Classes are hard, certain finals can seem impossible, and you’ve heard that the organic chemistry course you signed up for is going to chew you up and swallow you down like a starving, manic Sarlaac pit which has been trained to consume its victims as slowly and painfully as possible. And that’s true. School is increasingly difficult with every year and there’s no avoiding that. On top of the difficulty of maintaining a high enough GPA to keep people from thinking you’re joking when you tell them, students hoping to find a job after they graduate are also going to have to spend their extracurricular time participating in worthwhile club activities, searching for jobs or internships during the summer months, or looking for a variety of other helpful opportunities to come their way. It’s demanding at the best of times and mentally/emotionally overwhelming at the worst.
Despite all that, I’m still looking forward to school. I’m actually finding it kind of hard to wait, I’m that ready to get started. Don’t misunderstand, I’ve never been someone who was particularly good at school. In high school, I was the kid who handed in papers weeks late, if ever, and barely scraped by on my decent test scores and seemingly never empty storage bank of pure luck. And as far as higher education goes, I haven’t done much better. Based solely on my personal history there’s really nothing to suggest that anything would change. As far as my past indicates, I could do worse this semester than ever before. Nothing about my past or my potential future should make me excited for school, but my failures are exactly the reason I am.
Here’s the thing: every new semester is its own starting point. No matter how much you may have slacked off last semester doesn’t matter, because this is a new start with new classes and an empty slate. What matters is your ability to take control of your own life. If you’re unhappy with school, if you’re unhappy with your grades, you’re going to continue being unhappy because ultimately, nothing changes except yourself. Everything gets better when you put the work in, when you give yourself the attention and self-care you deserve, and when you take responsibility. And if, after all that, you still do poorly, you can’t even fault yourself. You’ve done all you could do and there is no failure in that.
This goes well beyond GPA too. If you’re unhappy because you’re lonely or because your mental health is taking a toll from college life, then the only thing that can make you happy is to make a change. Now academically, that change can be as simple as working harder, but even with emotional problems the smallest of changes can make all the difference. Take the time you need to care for yourself, to be with the people who make you feel good, or do whatever else it takes to make things better. Nothing changes except the changes you make yourself. That’s why I’m looking forward to this semester. Because it’s another chance to take a look at my mistakes, understand why I’m failing, and do whatever it takes to change it. And that opportunity is enough to get me excited.
Sam Shopp