How much of a student’s day is spent wondering when they’re ever going to use the material in class?
Going off of how much my friends and I complain, I’d say quite a bit.
Sure, we have courses that we need to take at an intro level — or it was the only thing that fit into our schedule — that aren’t overly relevant. I mean, how often are you going to have to analyse Beowulf through a feminist lens on a daily basis?
I hope for your sake, not that often.
And then along comes higher education.
Oh, how I love the freedom of choice it gives you.
You have more options of what to study – and subsequently, what subjects you’ll never have to touch again (*cough* physics) – based on where you think you’re headed in life.
I say “think” because the majority of my peers have a rough idea of what they may want to do later on in life, but they’re still figuring it out.
Or they have no idea.
Which is entirely normal, might I add, so there’s no cause for panic if you fit into those categories.
However, I have a pretty clear idea of where I’m heading, which means that all of the classes I took over the past two years in my program-based courses (that weren’t just filler, as the one I wanted was no longer available – rude) are going to relate to my career.
In first semester, year two, I took three psychology courses: psych of mental disorders, adolescent development, and social psychology.
If I could have taken more, I would have – I adore psychology.
My classmates were mostly social science students, but there were also a mix of liberal arts and science kids who took the course as a complementary.
That being said, the mostly lax vibe that comes with being a social science kid was strong in all three courses.
I still cared about learning the material and not goofing up on a test (see: getting less than an 85), but I was still in this-doesn’t-matter-for-my-future mode until one of my profs were going over material we needed to know for our first test.
My psych of mental disorders prof was talking about how to treat a patient based on the different schools of therapy when it dawned on me that what I was learning wasn’t just going to be on a test or in a paper.
This was going to be my life.
My stomach was in more knots that a three year-old’s attempt at making a friendship bracelet.
No longer could I passively sit through a class when I felt tired or half-heartedly take notes, because who knows when I might need that bit of advice in the future?
Going through that panic-inducing lesson gave me my first taste of the real world. What I was learning would be used in my everyday life. I do still have another decade of school to get through, but that doesn’t change the fact that these ten years will all be going towards a PhD and career in psychology.
Hopefully the above doesn’t send anyone into a state of severe anxiety over their future or how they approach academia. My point is to share my experience in hopes that someone else can keep this in the back of their minds, and not realise it too late.
See You at BU 