Does Superman bleed? Did Icarus sweat when he touched the sun? Did Theseus think about his mother before fighting the minotaur?
It would be nice to know the heroes of our stories are just as fallible as us, to know that Hercules gets pimples just like the common folk, but that would remove the beauty of being human: hardship.
Although our lives would certainly be entertaining if they were as structured as Greek myths, the beauty of the human experience can be found in the unexpected chaos that guides us through our daily lives.
Take me, for example. Had I journeyed down the path my birth-given prophecy should have predicted, I would have landed in some stuffy ivy league or one of the best universities my home of Ohio could offer, but I never wanted any of that. In fact, I had no idea exactly what I wanted until I stepped onto the University of Oklahoma campus.
The good times I’ve had at college will never leave me, but I’m also privileged with carrying all of my mistakes and how I’ve learned from them. Here’s a quick crash course of what I’ve learned, tuition free for the reader.
Show up to class on time. In fact, show up early. Sure, it might be hard to get up an extra half an hour before class, especially if that class happens to fall before noon, but it can really be worth it in the long run. Those couple extra minutes of downtime before class starts are key to building relationships with professors.
Professors might not be your friends, but you can certainly be friendly. There’s no need to be on a first-name basis with every one of your professors, but getting on their good side will make your courses a lot easier in the rare case that you fall ill or need to request an extension.
Don’t abuse your privileges. Your professor has no late policy, allows for infinite extensions, or doesn’t check attendance. Great! Use it sparingly. These professors still know who’s doing the work and who’s just coasting by, and you never just want to be coasting by.
Don’t replace your bad habits with new ones. You may be tempted to reinvent yourself in college, which is not a bad thing. Just remember when ironing out those old wrinkles not to let them get replaced with something just as bad, or even worse.
Read contracts. I know this generation has grown up skipping every “Terms and Conditions” agreement that’s ever been handed to them, but this is the real world. People don’t always have your best interest at heart, but pen and paper always will. Make sure you know what to look for in everything you sign, or find someone who can advise you.
There’s no such thing as a perfect hero, and frankly if there was, their story would be pretty boring. Life is not a challenge to see how much you can do right, it’s a test to see how much you can do wrong and keep moving forward.
