The snow is melting, the sun is shining and spring break is past us. I think it is safe to say that the long-awaited spring is finally here.
Now that the sun is back, I have been starting to feel those winter blues going away. I have felt more awake and lively. However, even with this lovely weather, I somehow slept through my first class coming back from spring break. It was a complete accident, but I still happened to sleep through two alarms.
Due to that accident, I kept trying to figure out why I was so tired once I got to my classes. I would feel wide awake, but once I got to class or started to work on homework, I would feel abnormally tired.
With that realization, I started to notice a trend in all of my classes. Many of my fellow classmates were coming late to class, leaving early and even just simply not paying attention in class at all. I don’t mean late by a few minutes or just watching the clock throughout class. It was obvious that many students, myself included, did not want to be in class.
I had one class where a professor in my major was observing the professor teaching the class. She noticed the same trends I had started to see and said something about it. She reminded us that the professors notice the behavior of students and someday our bosses will notice the same behavior, as it is already a habit for most of us.
This lecture gave me a much-needed wake up call. Wasn’t spring break meant to give us time to rejuvenate and prepare ourselves for the upcoming weeks?
Maybe many of the students in my classes are like me, where they are just waiting for the semester to be over. Now that we are halfway through, it is easy to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Spring is here, so that means summer is coming, right?
However, instead of spring waking us up for our classes, it seems to be putting us to sleep as we daydream about all the other things we will be doing once the semester is over. I will admit, I am just as guilty as the next person when it comes to not paying attention in class. I will start looking in my planner, work on other homework or even use my phone.
I am not content with this level of attention span though, and I challenge my fellow students to not be content with it either. Every professor I’ve had has said it is not acceptable to come to class late, leave early or not pay attention. These classes are going towards our degree, helping to make us competent professionals in our field of study. These classes should matter to us.
No matter how much we might not want to be in class, each class is still important. It is a point of integrity to act as a professional in our classes, because someday we will have to prove ourselves as professionals in our career fields. It would be beneficial to start practicing the part now. The habit has already been formed in my mind to daydream and not be present in my classes, but I do not want this habit to transfer over to my career someday.
I know that it is easier to just look forward to summer, and in doing so just get the bare minimum done now. However, by just going through the motions, we are missing out on the time we still have left in this semester. We have time to make a real impression on our professors, who could someday be a mentor or a reference. We have time to learn something that will be useful in practice later on in life. We have time to feel like we accomplished something this semester,r instead of just making it through.
If you are like me and went through this week just trying to get by, then I challenge you to look forward to the next week with excitement. Finish out the second half of the semester strong by plugging into your classes and becoming involved in what each class has to offer. It is time to wake up as students of this university.
