The other day I had a little chit chat with one of my coworkers. She asked me how school was going, and whether or not my classes were tough this semester. I said not really, they’re about moderate hardness, with one class that I’m emphasizing my time on. She gave me this puzzled look and began to lecture me about the purpose of college classes: to ‘feel the burn, so you learn something useful.’
It may just be my persona of calmness and stoic-ness, but it’s interesting how she said this to be of the essence of taking classes at prestigious universities. How else are we to learn not only the material, but of something useful we can apply to our lives, our jobs, our daily problems? It’s evident that when we’re interviewing for jobs, or internships, at least 80% of the questions will be about you. I guess when my coworker asked how I was doing, she was looking for a more frantic answer, that I’m always stressed like almost every other college student. Maybe that’s just not me? It’s not that I don’t ‘feel the burn’ when I’m completing multiple assignments for a week. It’s just I handle stress differently than her. So maybe I do feel a burn.
That ending was a tangent. The purpose of this blog post was to convey the meaning of opportunity costs. When you’re in college we should take advantage of where we are. It’s kind of sad that all college students try to take ‘GPA booster’ classes about a very minute subject. Maybe ‘feeling the burn’ means taking advantage of what’s in front of you. It makes sense, just hard to apply. I mean, who wants to take more biochemistry or linear algebra? I guess that’s where opportunity costs arise. You want more time to allocate to your social life, to your job, to other more important classes.
Should this apply to other parts of our lives? I’m trying to think of some. Help me out?
or maybe you have no need for compensation.
haha. not sure you were so “calm” sophomore year, mr. stoic.
id take most advice with a grain of salt (even this one), since its often biased by someones unique circumstances.
but i think youre onto something with opportunity costs. what you lose in one area, you gain elsewhere.
maybe you unconsciously spend more time on something outside of classes because its more important to you.
we all get 24 hours a day, our lives and learning reflect how we decide to spend those hours.