Self Handicapping In College

When we meet others who may be able to perform a simple task seemingly well, we feel threatened, and act through envy, hurting others in the process. Most importantly, we end up hurting ourselves, for trying to aim for perfection when it doesn’t exist. As I grew up, my aspirations of being the perfect student were met with unsatisfactory results. At one point, if I were to mess up for any reason, I felt there’d been no need to continue as I felt that I’d failed myself. However, the road to perfection became a narrow path to failure. Over time, I realized that it’s perfectly okay to make mistakes; that we have the ability to learn from them and take those lessons and apply them in the future. As I began to let go of any frustrations regarding not achieving as much as all of the others, I came to the conclusion that the only competition worth having is with myself. Learning to use my past self as a reason to become a better person. I aspire to attend Lynn University as a graduate student looking to further my knowledge and feed my many curiosities on the human mind and learn from how culture and context can bring about the set personalities of others and shape their

College is a positive thing, but it sucks at most times, many drop out of college because they feel it’s an impossible task because of many stressors they encounter throughout the time. Due to the pain and sacrifices I have gotten stronger as person and as a friend. During my journal entries I have notice a side to me I didn’t notice, I am a depress person. It is sad, but for years I have ran away from that fact. My family is diagnosis with depression, it was amount of time before it spread to me, maybe it was there but my body fought it.

Cureton and John Tagg both look at the bigger picture. In “Collegiate Life: An Obituary,” Levine & Cureton discuss larger reasons for why students behave the way they do in college–hope and fear. From these two emotions, they show how other attitudes–consumer expectations, psychological “damage,” and a utilitarian approach to learning–are a result of these two greater forces (Levine & Cureton 712). On the other hand, Tagg, in “The Decline of the Knowledge Factory: Why Our Colleges Must Change,” places the blame for the failure of higher education on universities. He writes that students’ disinterest and professors’ complaints are both due to the failure of the universities. Edmundson’s essay is given context and an explanation in Tagg’s

During the college life students have to deal with different types of obstacles. In the article, “College Pressures” William Zinsser focuses on the pressure faced by the college students. He talks about how the students are dealing with economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. College students are worried about getting high paid jobs and being rich instead of relaxing and enjoying now. Zinsser claims that students are worried about their future by using pathos.

College is an opportunity to truly discover who you are. Often enough, you hear people saying “You should really major in this field, I think you would really enjoy this career.” or, “Do you think you really want to study that? Have you thought about what you will be doing ten years from now?” filling your mind with self doubt, uncertainty, and the anxiousness of not knowing what you want to do with the rest of your life. Mark Edmundson wrote an article titled, Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here?, published in Oxford American addressing college students and their families how the most important thing college students should focus on is personal growth. When students take their courses seriously their engagement can help finding out who they really are and which future career will lead not necessarily to great financial success, but to a career and life that is very satisfying. Edmundson wants to inspire his audience and have them take what he is saying seriously. Edmundson uses satirical informal language and hypothetical situations to effectively persuade college students to focus on their personal growth in order to create a life and career that is deeply fulfilling.

In the book Rereading America, written by Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle, the introduction of the book discusses how college students face different situations and have more control with one’s own actions. College typically have more workload and sometimes, that much work could impact a student’s quality of work. Students may rethink about their old habits and would have to readjust them to fit this new college life to become a critical thinker. In order to think critically, one must learn different perspectives and understand them. This is difficult because it requires a person to think deeply about things they wouldn’t previously think about and to see the world in multiple viewpoints.

College is an exciting time with plenty of challenges and difficulties. The ones who can overcome these challenges and difficulties will be the ones who get the most out of college and their degree. In my paper I will talk about what a degree means to me personally and professionally. I will also talk about different things I struggle with so far in college and different ways I can improve these difficulties, as well as how I feel about the CSI report that we took and how I believe it compares to me personally.

Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle in their book “Rereading America” feel that commencing college is a very disturbing experience. So many things we have to deal while starting college, but the major challenges are expanded difficulty levels and higher expectation which we are not familiar over the years of high school. In order to solve this issue, we have to remodel ourselves by taking up the challenge and rethink about our strength and flaws. To succeed in college we need to be mentally strong and dedicated towards our goal.

She recalls the struggles, the fun, her failures and even her success in the end (Harding, 2011). The personal story shows the real road it takes with decisions we make “when entering college, Harding wrote that she began college because she felt it was expected of her”(Harding, 2011). College students often make choices based on what they perceive as pressure to do so by others like councilors, parents and even society. They enter college thinking this is what my plan should look like and not making choices that are the best for them. Harding said that in the end “ we all become graduates of one of the finest universities in the world- and already, nobody much cared how we got there”(Harding,2011). To me this shows that even if you pass by the skin of your teeth, you can still fail in the end. A diploma is not the end result that maters the most. Students need to choose colleges that appeal to their needs and goals and not just go to get a diploma. If students spend no time studying weather boarded or not liking their studies, then what difference does the diploma make in the end. Students would just have a degree that often goes unused in life but the costs is ever mounting to these students. The financial cost, the cost of failure, loss of energy and time, causes many students to never finish their education or even to avoid going in the

In today’s society, there is a stigma that one needs a college education to be successful. Due to these overwhelming societal pressures, college students encounter numerous challenges. Two authors who explore these challenges are William Zinsser in his article “College Pressures” and Eric Greiten in his book “The Heart and the Fist”. Both Zinsser and Greitens consider the everyday struggles that college students face. While discussing the same topics, the authors use different writing styles and techniques to illustrate the same idea.

The article “Fear of Falling” by Julie Scelfo develops the topic of hyper perfectionism and suicide on schools, through the story of Kathryn DeWitt, a young student at the University of Pennsylvania who suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts. The article explains how many universities incluiding Duke, Cornell and Stanford have had an increase in suicidal and depression rates.

Each year thousands of students start college, though not all of them make it. Some students will go to college anywhere from a year all the way up to eight plus, as where others may only last a semester or two at the most. College is something that all students need to have in order to attain multiple opportunities The students who end up failing his or her college courses have multiple reasons as to why he or she may not have lasted as long as intended. Though most of them end up being rather foolish excuses. For instance, students not showing up to class on time, never doing his or her homework, not taking notes, refusing to give up relaxation time along with any type of social gathering, or it could just be as simple as him or her not understanding

Professor Jacob Neusner wrote a speech for the graduates at Brown University that he planned to read on their graduation ceremony, however; for unknown reasons he didn’t. The speech starts by stating; “We the faculty take no pride in our educational achievements with you. We have prepared you for a world that does not exist, indeed, cannot exist. You have spent four years supposing that failure leaves no record” (39). Profesor Neusner argues in his speech that college has “…created an altogether forgiving world…(39)” and therefore has forgotten to prepared students for real life were jobs and potential bosses might not be as lenient to excuse some attitudes and behaviors that may get students fired or have potentially harmful consequences that may affect them in

Satire is my element. Every conversation I partake in feels my scathing and dry tone penetrate the ranks. So when presented with this assignment, I could not help but smile. I actualize the quote by German satirist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, “The finest satire is that in which ridicule is combined with so little malice and so much conviction that it even rouses laughter in those who are hit”, especially in regards to my list “Everything It Takes to Get Accepted”. Unsurprisingly, I hold infinite amounts of angst towards the college process. It has taken over my days, decimated my sleep patterns, and generally, ruined the past two years. All waking moments dedicate themselves to selling myself as the person colleges want and need to have--just

Now that I am reaching the end of my undergraduate career I feel like it’s fit to reflect on how far i’ve come and some high and low points during this time of my life. Some people may say that these four years of college are the most wonderful times of their life, and for the most part that is correct. But there is this whole other part of college life that is super stressful and even scary. During this paper I will address my personal development and how certain experiences played a role in those developments. Even though I feel like i’ve grown a lot and have developed and learned new things, I have run into some issues. Those issues being family/culture, social and emotional growth, intellectual growth, values and beliefs, citizen and community member.