Finally after four years of agonizing about my lack of good grades and strong sense of procrastination, I accepted it.
I'll finish next year, but school is not going to determine what I do with my life.
Half way through this semester, a professor talked to me about my individualism interfering with my class assignments. I didn't follow the instructions carefully enough. I really appreciated the honesty because it opened my eyes.
This inability to follow directions and do everything exactly how we're told, might be the biggest strength some of us have.
Although by fourth grade I could easily finish a Nancy Drew book in one night, and scored way above average on my verbal and reading comprehension on the ISTEP exam, I was taken out of the gifted reading/English class because my teacher said I couldn't follow the directions properly on homework. Is that what school is about? Following directions, memorization, test-taking and mastering what your teachers want from you? Or is about developing our own strengths?
So, just because I can't get it right in the classroom, does this mean I'm not passionate to learn, to be educated, to be smart and intellectual? No, I just can't conform to their timeframes and syllabi. This is why after dropping a class every semester I've forced myself into the five-year plan. Believe me, I take full responsibility.
But research shows that grades and degrees don't always equal success. There's more to the story, and it's usually not taught in school.
Author and researcher Thomas J. Stanley, Phd. did extensive surveying on successful people and found what they considered the most important factors: 94 percent said developing a strong work ethic; 91 percent said time management; 88 percent said learning how to make accurate judgments about people; 86 percent said developing an appreciation for your interests/abilities; 76 percent said learning to think differently from the crowd and 55 percent said working a part time job while in school.
Wait, I didn't hear anything about straight A's or high GPA's. Does this mean us C students still got a chance? Or better yet, those who ain't even got a degree can be smart and successful, too?
Without sounding too much like Matt Foley, a motivational speaker who lives in a van down by the river; no one can determine what we get out of life or what we do with our lives except us.
Sometimes our biggest obstacles are ourselves. What we might write off as laziness may be our fear of success - or fearing that we won't succeed - so we inhibit ourselves and become our own worst enemy. Why? Because we listened to what our fourth grade English teacher said?
So, what is success all about? That's what you have to decide for yourself. No one can tell you what will make your life fulfilling. For me, my college degree is one accomplishment hopefully out of many more. Yes, it will give me a certificate saying, "I can follow university guidelines and my professors instructions enough to earn a bachelors degree." Yes, it helped prepare me for the next segment of my life and sure was helpful. But it's not the end all, say all.
Beyond the math, the science, the history and, for me, the writing classes in journalism where I never made the A-team, I learned grades, scores and degrees don't determine how smart you are. You might not find it written on a syllabus, but I got what I wanted out of college. I'll be lucky to graduate with a 2.5, but when it comes to what's really important in life, I think I earned a 4.0.
Write to Meghan at mefarr@bsu.edu
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