A public service message to the victims of a lousy school system

What is this a picture of? A building? An institution? A prison? To some, it may be the turning point in their lives where they go to seek an advancement of their education. To others, it may be another 4 years of paying attention to professionals who memorized all of this useless information to regurgitate back onto the students that maybe care enough to pay attention.

This, my dear friends, is a college building. I pulled a random building from off the internet to define it's symbolism. You see, this building stands for far much more than just a place to hold classroom lectures. This is the ultimate learning environment. Or so one would certainly hope for.

Let me summarize briefly what happens to you from your last 4 years of high school to your first years of college.


9th to 12th grade you spend constant time, effort, and research into what you want to do with your life. You look up schools, careers, talk to counselors, take campus tours, and even apply for countless scholarships. Then boom! Graduation day hits you, the paper is yours, and you're out the door. You have to decide on your own map where to go from here.

So it's narrowed down to three options: don't go to school and go for a job, with only a high school diploma, go to a junior college then either transfer or go for a job then, or junior college then transfer to a 4 year school. You go with plan C, and pray to God that it doesn't fail you.

Junior college seems wonderful. You've made a ton of new friends, began to embrace your true identity of your own passions, made some good connections, met some respectable and influential teachers, and continued to do well. Then graduation comes again.

You graduate, your friends jet, your awesome teachers stay there, then you move on to a bigger school.
It can't be that bad right? Nope. Not even. You go to a 4 year school near home, offering a very poor degree in what you want, and if you survive, you'll get a bachelor's degree in something somewhat related to your original degree.

Fast forward to the present day. 4 year school. 1 semester down. Very little friends. Very bleak outlook on life. And then it hits you like a truckload of cow manure: you're not doing very well at all in college.

Which brings me to the purpose of this entire post: why college can truly slay your dreams.

To quote Lewis Black in "Accepted", college is a service industry. And he couldn't have been anymore right. College professors are being paid to teach to the best of their abilities to educate the students that pay thousands of dollars for a high quality education. So why is it that when one student fails, it goes unnoticed?

Is it typical for students to have a rocky start in a bigger college? I'm not quite sure. But I will say that to any so called "teacher" *cough *cough lousy graduate students with less than 2 years experience trying to cash in willing to fail a student giving an honest effort to regurgitate the information retained in the class should be fired. You give the college reputation of a higher education a big slap to the face.

I've come to accept time and time again that a 4 year school is more hardcore than anything. I picture it as the T-Rex on the food chain. It can eat almost anything that eats other things. The only trick to it is not to be around when it feeds. In this case, do the work, attend class, pay attention, contact the teachers, and everything should be good right?

Not all is good at the moment. I had to deal with the fact that I did poorly than I expected to be. I have to change my entire life routine just because my GPA went straight down to hell. Is it all my fault? No. Is it all of the faculty's fault? No, but they did pull the trigger to assassinate my grades.

Out of curiosity, I will one day research what requirements are needed to be a teacher at a college university. I would wish that they eliminate grad students teaching classes in general education that have no idea how to teach freshman.

In their own defense, I can see they want to make an honest buck. Perfectly respectable. All I ask is that they factor in that not everyone will be up to speed about everything they lecture about. Thus, I would prefer experience over anything when getting a college education.

The reason why I did poorly this semester was a number of things. Sure, I could point fingers at video games, goofing off with my pals, and chasing after hot girls, but that won't get me anywhere. It's comparable to a dog chasing it's own tail. It's amusing, pointless, and goes in a complete circle. Same with my reasonings, but one reason I can affirm is the lack of quality of my education. 4 out of 5 of my teachers were all graduate students.

What happened to high quality college professors? Up to this point in my school career, I've had nothing but excellence from my own teachers. And they have demanded nothing but the same from me. But the instant I hit OSU, it changes. I learn the same tactics I used at NOC don't apply well to a big wig 4 year school.

But the thing that really irks me the most over there is that they take advantage of the BIG school reputation and run with it. They care less about quality, and care only more about whether or not they're taking some college kid's money, entrenching them in a life full of debt until they get a decent job regardless of that little white paper in their hands saying they spent a good 4 to 5 years of their life learning stuff they need to know in order to prove to the world they're not complete morons.

I try to write these posts for good. That maybe someone out there, in my shoes or can somewhat relate to me, can say that man, this guy hit the nail on the head. We're living in an unjust and corrupt system and until we recognize that, we'll always be the victims.

I apologize if I seem quite radical now, but this newfound manifestation of anger has only seeped through my veins through the past couple of weeks. I hope in turn that any college student struggling with their first semester can seek hope from my post and know that failure is never the end; it's always a new beginning. Sure, you may go through redemption like me, but the road less traveled is the one always worth taking.

To leave on a more positive note: Understand that I wrote this post in order to expose the flaws of any type of school system, regardless of your grade level. Do not take from this post that I mean to insult what educators are doing for students. That is the complete opposite. I wrote this to better prepare students in the future not to make my mistakes, understand when they fail it's not entirely their fault, and that teachers, grad student or not, should take full responsibility if a student is struggling, and shouldn't worry so much about the money they make.

You can't put a price on a good education.
Good night and God Bless

Adversity: Surviving it all and laughing back at it.

Imagine yourselves in a boat. I'm talking old school, with  wooden structure, sturdy sails, no electronic equipment. Let's call it a "pirate" type of ship. that doesn't constitute that you're a pirate(unless you want to be).
From here, we'll also say that you are sailing around the world to different major countries. Start off in the US with New York(you start off in California), go to Brazil, head over to India, hit up Japan, down to Australia, and then back again to the good ol' states.

Now one might say that this would be an amazing, life-long, and intense journey. You are correct. To an extent. But not only is it pleasurable to experience, it poses quite a bit of a challenge: Everything in between.

To elaborate more on this, think about it. You're not just going to be able to smoothely sail around the world with ease. There will be massive gusts of wind, weather changes, hostile water creatures such as sharks, modern day pirates where they could potentially either rob you or murder you, or possibly you run out of supplies and are relying on something to reach out to another to get help.

Through all of this, the element of adversity surrounds you. You go through these trials not only to learn, but they bring out the best in yourself. Given, when one is put up against the most difficult of odds, 1 of 2 things happen: You either persevere and thrive successfully through it or fail miserably, crashing and struggling to survive.

Everyone deals with adversity. This whole theme has stuck to me at this point in my life. I'm dealing with so many things right now it's almost overwhelming. To stay out of the cliche' thing of complaining about all of my problems, it will be agreed that I don't lead a perfect life. So to conclude from this statement, we can say that also it is affecting a huge part of my life.

I'm going through the typical obstacles of adversity right now. School, jobless, family, mental health, motivation, girls, and everything else stacked on top of that. But one of the things that irks me the most out of all of these is the intervention of my own life.

Nothing irks me more than telling me that I have a problem and I need to fix it or I'll have it forever. Things should be a choice, not a demand. If it was demanded that I improve my social skills, then I'm more likely to not care to improve my skills. If I naturally come into my own being and improve myself, that's completely different.

The only person in your own lives that can take charge in any given situation is you. You're the one who calls the shots. You're your own hero. You make your own downfall. You control your own destiny. Let no one ever tell you any different.

This post isn't in any resentment towards my friend, but as a way of expressing my understanding. He claims I have a social anxiety disorder, I'm in denile, and it isn't laziness. I hate to break it to him, but he's wrong on all three counts. I care about my good pal very much, but it's sometimes I don't want to be labeled. That I need help or not. Let me figure out things on my own.

I honestly believe he has a disorder. He cares way too much and hypercritically of others, including myself. It's not a bad thing, but he needs to take a supportive and defensive approach to things. After all, it's much better to put out a fire instead of soaking more gasoline to it.(Unless you're just a natural pyro)

Later today, I'm going to be put through a social experiment. Just to stupidly prove to him I'm capable of talking to anyone I dare wish to and that I don't have a social disorder. And he's dead wrong. I just choose not to talk to anyone. It's my own (excuse my language) damn choice. He won't ever understand, to this point, but he better get ready to be wrong. Because it's going to happen.

I can be quite stubborn myself, but on a positive note, say I have this "disorder" he so diagnoses(because he has certification to say I have one? Not at all. He's just going based off information gathered on the interwebs) then the best I can do is improve constantly, at my own discretion.

This is my biggest curse. I somehow grab the attention of too good of friends. And it can be my downfall. On rare occasions, I grab the attention of those friends that care way too much for my own well being, instead of just being my friend and generally be supportive. I don't want to be a lab rat in an experiment. I want to be treated as an equal and I demand the same respect as anyone else would at all times.

Here's a cool exercise to try out: Close your eyes.Imagine yourself in your most triumphant moment. Whether it be graduating school, getting a job,or even getting that special someone you had your eye on. Memorize every detail the best you can in that scenario. Ok now from that point on, work on making that goal a reality.

From my studies in my psychology class, the more likely we are to accept our own positive or negative imaginations, the more likely we are to make the necessary actions to make them come true.

If adversity has taught me anything, it's this: don't ever, ever, ever, EVER, give up on your goals or dreams in life. You, yourself, has the potential to do anything in this world that God created. Anyone can become President, and lead the world into a golden age of peace and prosperity. Or you can be the ruthless tyrannical dictator of a third world country that everyone despises. Let nothing hold you back. And I mean nothing. Not even the end of the world.

That's just it though. That's what's so fascinating about the human mind and humans in general. What sets us apart from animals with less intellectual thinking than us is that we have the reasoning and hidden potential to put it into action. And make the world anything we want them to be. But it's ultimately up to yourself. You're the only barrier that can stop yourself from doing anything. And you're the cape that can make you fly straight up to the moon, beyond the stars, and into the heavens.

There are just some things in life that happen to you for a reason. Maybe I crashed and burned so hard this semester because I needed to learn the biggest lesson of all: not being afraid of failure. If I came to terms with my own fear of failing, there was nothing to lose. And nothing to hold myself back.

Don't ever tell you someone that you can't do something. Screw adversity. It will always be there to kick you down the stairs, but God or whatever religious entity you believe in, gave you the will power, strength, and physical limbs of legs, and arms to push yourself through any given situation. Nothing is impossible. Everything is achievable.

You just have to believe.
Good Night everyone.