6 THINGS COLLEGE HAS TAUGHT ME.

Hey ya'll. (:

On Tuesday I was on a panel for a diversity conference at my campus. The panel had four students on one side, and four professors on the other side. The topic was diversity, but was left open to interpretation of the definition. The keynote speakers emphasized that diversity is ALL differences, and that there are a lot of issues in colleges (and any schooling system) where a lot of professors are understanding this, and students are meeting them there either. I really loved the concept of this, and I loved that I was asked to speak.

Me, Ismail, Undra, & Ayanna.

I took it from the scope of mental health. I came up with six things that for better or worse college has taught me.

Here they are:

1. College has taught me that even though it's wrong, I should put my grades above my mental health.
2. College has taught me that I am nothing more than my test scores. 

3. College has taught me that my participation doesn't matter. 

4. College has taught me that 95% of my professors will never learn my name or want to learn my name.

5. College has taught me that I am only valuable when I'm filling a seat. 

6. College has taught me that if I'm not filling a seat, then I'm just a courtesy failure to attend email.

These are all not good things, but they are all things I've been conditioned to feel like due to the enviroment of my campus. I definitely haven't felt all of these in one semester, by the way. I'm finishing up my second year right now, so I've been there for four semesters in total. These are all things I've noticed build up over time. And I'm glad I finally had a platform to address them. A lot of students came up to me and totally agreed with everything I said, a lot agreed with part of it, some didn't agree. It all depends on what you're taking and who you take it with, I guess.

The ways I've overcome a lot of these feelings go back to how I let myself feel and how I let comments from professors make me feel. Honestly, I'm lucky because I don't live on campus, so I don't have to dwell in it. I get to go home and let myself chill out. I know not everyone is privy to this.

But, I have a few small tips to help yourself when college gets too heavy:

1. If you're not failing your class, you haven't missed a million days, and you wake up not feeling it - MAKE THE DECISION NOT TO GO. And don't make it mean something, don't make it mean that you're a terrible student. You need personal days, everyone does.

2. Give yourself either time to chill out during the day, or maybe a whole day to chill it out if you have the kind of schedule that can do that.

3. Do not alienate yourself from your friends. Those are the people you definitely need and the good times you definitely need when you're dealing with course load stress.

4. When you pick your schedule ALWAYS PICK SOMETHING YOU THINK YOU'LL ENJOY. Seriously. If you pick 4 classes that are needed and going to be hard, it's going to be seriously difficult for you to make yourself get up and want to go to school. I always find myself something I know will be fun or easy, like creative writing or an extra lit class (I'm an English major, by da way guize).

I hope ya'll find this interesting and helpful!

Love, Noralee