Getting what you want out of your education

Last week I was really fed up with my college career thus far. I felt like my undergrad education has been a series of poor choices and a continuous search for that special subject that would I would so passionate about I would no longer have any doubts, which has not been forthcoming. And I just felt that I simply wasn't where I would like to be, in my academic, career, or personal development.

There is a point to all the above complaints, namely, that they were mostly unfounded, or if not then they were at least reparable. Throughout my education, both at MHC Hunter and certainly before college, my guiding principle has been to seek out what I want - people to learn from, opportunities, stimulating environments, etc. The problems always arise when I get complacent and stop seeking things out, and I think my angst in the past weeks - my dissatisfaction with my education, my unrest in my lab, where I felt unproductive and discouraged - has been due to that. I had had a few less-than-great experiences with some advisors and faculty members, got discouraged, and just stopped putting in the effort. And, not surprisingly, I stopped getting results I was happy with.

So today I did exactly what I would recommend that you, readers and potential MHC Hunter students, also do in tackling your education: I went after the things I wanted. Today I approached my calculus professor about auditing calc II next semester (my class schedule is booked straight through graduation, but I'm enjoying calc I so much that I want to fit II in somehow or other), organized myself to apply for an intensive undergrad neuroscience pre-research program here at Hunter, and started lining up recommenders for a scholarship application, then I came to lab and sat down with my boss to see how I can be more efficient and productive about working on my project.

The moral of this blog post, if you'll excuse the pedantry, is that school will only meet you in the middle, and it's up to you to make it at least halfway. College is a pool of resources and, sometimes, not much more - sometimes it is more, sometimes opportunities do pop out at you, but often times it takes some looking and a lot of work. And if you don't do that work 100% of the time, that's fine of course, but you will get very different results.

Cheers and happy thanksgiving to those who celebrate it.

- Celine