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| Steven Colbert at Northwestern University https://www.cnn.com |
Anny Murphy Paul’s article “Secrets of the Most Successful College Students” cites multiple revered people that have advice on ways to reconsider how success in college can be defined. I have experienced some of these mindsets with both positive and negative effects.
Anny Murphy Paul claimed that successful students “get comfortable with failure”. This advice sited to come from Steven Colbert might be good advice for some people, but not for me. Constant iteration following failure can lead to extraordinary breakthroughs and superior results, but in my case, failure just ended my hopes and dreams. I may have become a little too comfortable with failure. I had aspirations for my time in college to result in a career as a mechanical engineer. Being comfortable with failure led to me failing calculus three times. This failure turned into a realization that I lacked dedication. Contrary to Colbert’s claim, this failure was something that I did not “learn to love”.
Paul sited Tia Fuller as using a method to gain success. “Set goals and make them real” is functional and basic advice that should be utilized by everyone. I definitely would not be in college at all if I never made the goal of being a college graduate. I started college with this goal and when I failed to progress as an engineering student, this goal did not change, just my major. This is my goal and I am working it to make it real.
Paul describes a lawyer, Joel Feinman, as defining his path to success through “find[ing] a way to contribute”. Fienman wanted to help people find justice and made this a goal of his. I volunteered to prepare tax filings for people in need. This is how I found a way to contribute. In full honesty, I started this program, AARP’s Tax-Aide, to contribute to my resume but found satisfaction and connection to the community that can only be achieved by helping others. When I am done with college in a few months, I plan on rejoining this organization to continue to contribute.
To “read and think actively”, advice Paul claims is contributed by economist Dean Baker, is what I consider to be a fundamental aspect of success in college. Paul writes about surface, strategic, and deep thinkers as the three types of college students. The least likely to be successful are the surface learners as they “do as little as possible” (Paul). Even though surface learners do as little as possible, I think they still must read and think actively to any chance at completing their college career. Doing as little as possible must at least include reading and thinking. I think this advice could be expanded on to say, “read and think to actively learn beyond the minimum expectations”. This could be my mantra…maybe. I say maybe because I think the correct way to relay my sentiment is “I wish this was my mantra”. I have a wife, a child, a job, and many college courses to deal with and I do not think I have enough time to be going above and beyond expectations. Case and point: this blog has a mandatory word count of 500…I have written 533.
I agree not everyone, such as yourself, gets comfortable with failure. We always hear how it's supposed to just motivate us more and make us stand back up but it doesn't always work that way. For me it depends on what the failure is and how big it is. For example, I get discouraged by bigger failures because it makes me question everything.
ReplyDeleteI thought your perspective on surface learners was very interesting. I too agree that even though they do as little as possible to get through things, they must take in some factors of what they're learning in order to get things done. Also I find myself, similar to you in the fact that I can't always be comfortable with failure and just move on.
ReplyDeleteOops I got distracted by your blog #5, oops. But in a way I can sort of relate to you failing a class, not once, but twice. I realized that wasn't because I was too comfortable with failure but just like you I lacked in dedication. When I was younger though, learning that it was okay to fail sometimes was really hard for me because growing up everything came so easily to me. Not until high school did I realize failing is okay as long as you learn from it and apply it to your next try.
ReplyDeleteBalancing work, kids, spouse, and school is hard. I know--I did this with my undergrad and then with grad school. And you're right. You can't do EVERYTHING 100 percent. We make choices based on what matters most to us. Btw, you made those 533 words count.
ReplyDeleteErin