So today while eating dinner with Monica and Amy, we were talking about random ass things (as per usual) and the topic of my fall came up and how I had gotten right back on my scooter (in my room and yet they still freaked out about it) just a day or two after I came back to UTSA. Amy asked if I was scared to get back on, and I said no. She seemed kind of surprised by this. So I asked her if she would have been scared and her and Monica both nodded and well yea, you should have waited at least a few weeks or a month or so before getting back on. That just seemed ridiculous to me and I told them that. Monica said you were only in the hospital for two days (meant sarcastically) and I said yea...and? It's not like I'm gonna not ever ride my scooter, sure I'll be nervous to go down the hill and I'll be a bit more cautious but that's it. For some reason they thought that was odd. Again I would like to point out that I had only ridden it in my room and that was after getting a lecture from Amy about being safe and not getting on and blah blah blah.
Tonight Amy is trying (keyword trying) to study for a politics test. A test that if she fails she will end up failing the class for the time being. Hearing her struggle and getting frustrated at Nick, who's trying to help, reminded me of another night where she confided in me that she sometimes thought of dropping out because she thought college was supposed to be easy and that she wasn't smart enough but more on this further down.
All of this has got me thinking about how I perceive life and events that go on around me. With the scooter conversation for example, I see the situation as this; yes I fell, yes it was bad, yes for the first week or so I needed to take it easy and I did. But my injury wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been and all things considered, I came away relatively unscathed. Why should I be scared to ride my scooter again? I realized my mistakes from last time (trying to go as fast as possible on a scooter with a barely there break= not a good idea) and now I can get back on and not make the same mistake twice. If I were to let minor things like this greatly affect me, I would be a hypochondriac living in a bubble inside a padded room. I believe the reason people make mistakes is to learn from them and use them later in life. (I also believe God gave me a strong head because he knew I would knock it a lot, which has certainly been true lol) I'm not saying that I'm fearless or reckless, but I do tend to act and speak before thinking which can sometimes get me in trouble. The only way to bounce back is to do just that and take what has happened and use it to your advantage whether good or bad. I say I don't regret anything, and it's still true. At the same time I don't focus too much on the past or future, I think that we're alive in the present and therefore we should pay attention to what's happening now. We should use the past as a reference guide, not dwell on how things could or should have been, and the future should be open and without limitations. I think people who try to predict the future are running in a never ending race. No one knows for sure what is in store for us in the future. Somewhere this second something could happen that would completely alter any thoughts or ideas we had about what is to come.
After Amy told me about struggling with college and the realization that it wasn't going to be easy, the only thing I could think of was Duh! Anyone who goes into college expecting it to be easy and not take much effort needs a reality check. Even the smartest person should expect to be challenged and to do work beyond what they are used to. This way if the work load is difficult, it won't come as a shock, and rather than shutting down and giving up, that student can take a deep breath and try their best. And if the work is easy, then the student will be even more relieved. It is naive to think that you won't be challenged in college, hell that is the point of college, to achieve a degree or degrees through hard work in challenging classes. Sure it can be a bit of a shock to realize that what got you through HS can't get you through college, but after that it's time to buck up and figure out what you need to do in order to achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself. I'm all for having fun and extracurricular activities and even a bit of slacking off in some situations as I'm sure ya'll know, but at the same time more focus should be placed on academics until graduation.
I know there is much more I could add to this, and I'm sure there will be a part 2 sometime in the near future, but for now I can't seem to come up with anything more. Please leave comments with your opinion :)
