This week I am preparing to write a class paper, which will be the equivalent to twenty percent of my overall grade for one of my courses. Earlier in the day I was trying to figure out how to divide my schedule for the upcoming week between class assignments, spending time with friends and family, or just pondering how to be rambunctious in general.

I sometimes wonder if all the time that I use to invest in studying will one day really pay off for me personally, professionally, and emotionally. I mean, there are no real guarantees right? And even if the collegiate experience improves my chances of success in the professional world with my career of choice, what did I have to sacrifice to achieve that success? Is it all really worth it?

Of course there are no unilateral answers to these questions. There is no one size fits all conclusions for the university student to adhere to, but these are topics for mental masturbation that students across the board at some point will contemplate regardless of age.

Each generation of students will confront issues that they deem relevant in their educational growth, and their responses to education will be just one example of how they express themselves to those relevant issues. So the thought here is not whether there is a superior way to being a student, but rather one of choice among many ways amid many generations, old or young based on each student’s definition of scholastic success.

The notion of right versus wrong, or good guy versus bad guy may work well within the confines of the police mentality, but for the academic mind these social restrictions do more to impede our shared experiences and growth as students, and the collegiate commonality we students participate in while trying to define our success.

I was a student when I woke up this morning. I was a student as I prepared myself for class. I was a student as I listened to my Professor’s lecture. I was a student when I left class for the evening.

After I graduate I must learn to endure a whole new set of struggles that lie before me, then too will I realize that I am always a student everyday of my life as long as I shall live.