Do you ever wake up in the morning and wonder "what's the point of going to class?" A lot of people will remind you by pulling out a horrifying figure breaking down the cost of college into cost-per-class, but I say-- well, I still say that's a lot of money and you probably shouldn't waste itgotoclassnow. But there are some things I've learned while in college that I didn't get from a lecture.
1. How to Text Using T9
During "Week One," Clark's orientation, a girl I hung out with at the time found out I still used ABC to text. She was obviously horrified and immediately took it upon herself to teach me the ever-dreaded T9/Word for all my texting purposes (you know, the one where it fills in the word for you-- like magic!). I haven't gone back. This is a skill I use every day, people.
2. The Value of Moving On
When I started college, I was planning on waiting for a guy who was clearly no good for me (an ex-boyfriend, my first boyfriend) to get home from Marine Corps. boot camp. While I got perspective-giving space from him, I found out my roommate had a really cute friend. We hit it off almost right away. Relentless flirting commenced-- but I was still unsure for awhile whether I wanted to forget my ex-boyfriend for someone I barely knew. I did, and hear I am, over two-and-a-half years later writing this with him sleeping next to me.
3. How to Play Video Games
I'll put it this way: before college, I could count the times I'd played a video game on one hand. Now I fantasize about becoming a game journalist so I can get tickets to E3. That aside-- valuable? Games, to me, are like interactive movies, a source of inspiration and wonder and new worlds. Some really make you think. Most of them give you a way to interact with your friends that's just really fun. Sad or not, it's something I do now on a near-daily basis-- my brain hasn't rotted, either, thank you.
4. How to Live Without TV
My junior year roommate wasn't a big TV-watcher. That isn't exactly true: she watched plenty of The Office on her laptop, but I digress. I used to need the television on almost all the time (I hated silent rooms), and my previous roommate had been pretty much the same. Once I got used to not turning something on just for the sake of it, I really liked the peace and quiet. I didn't watch as much trashy VH1 programming, and I loved how much energy I was saving. I probably got more homework done, too.
5. Not to "Categorize" People
Clark's orientation week involves watching a whole bunch of skits about how to live at college, one of which is based around our unofficial motto: "categorizing is not something we do here." Clark prides itself on having a diverse campus, which was something really new for me-- I come from a town that's 97% White, if you check the statistics. A lot of Clarkies joke about "categorizing" due to the campy performances we had to sit through about it, and because it seems so hyper-P.C., but one of the best parts of college for me was meeting new people from all different cultures and learning that you really can't judge a book by its cover. Whenever I make a snap judgment about someone I don't know well, I try to think of this to remember I shouldn't be so quick to judge.
What lessons did you learn in college, or high school, outside of class?
2 comments:
I learned the T9 function in college too and my friend was horrified that I still hadn't learned how to use it either. lol
Besides that and some other random talents, I had to take ethics and I ended up learning some crazy valuable life lessons, like the fact that nothing is black and white. Most of the time there's shades of gray in there too.
Lessons learnt in uni??? Man it's been so long since I've been in uni that I really can't remember.
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